[Reader-list] Digital Databases

[Saumya Gupta]

More on surveillance through digital databases - this Dutch version. 


 http://www.ix.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/7393/1.html

_________________
Digital Safe-Deposit for Dutch Citizens

Jelle van Buuren  
17.04.2001

Personal data from the register of population and financial and 
medical information should be stored in personal digital safe-deposits

Every Dutch citizen should get a 'digital safe-deposit', which 
contains her personal data, according to a Dutch commission, which 
 studied improvements of the current register of population. In the 
digital safe-deposit not only personal data from the register of 
population should be stored, but citizens can also choose to store 
financial or medical information. 

The Commission 'Modernisation of the register of population' was asked 
by the Ministry of Home Affairs to study ways to improve the register 
of population, which in the Netherlands is held by the 
municipialities. The access to information is too slow, according to 
organisations like the law enforcement authorities or the tax office, 
who have direct access to the register of population.

To improve direct access to the register of population the Commission 
advises to base the new register on web technology, so it would be 
possible to have access to the register 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 
Every Dutch citizen should get a digital safe-deposit with the 
information stored in the register of population. The register of 
population holds on every Dutch citizen about two hundred items of 
personal data, like name, date and place of birth, tax number, 
partners, children and other parts of the 'administrative course of 
life'. The police, tax office, pension funds and other organisations 
which are allowed to access these personal data should get an 
interface for direct access to the digital safe-deposits. The 
commission thinks this will discourage fraudulent behaviour. 

But the Commission also proposes that Dutch citizens get the 
possibility to store other information in their digital safe-deposit, 
like medical and financial information. Citizens can decide to whom 
they will give access to these types of information. The digital 
safe-deposit should be located at the web sites of the 
municipialities. For the protection of the safe-deposits the 
commission suggests to give each Dutch citizen an electronic identity 
card with biometrics information. Citizens who are not on-line should 
get access to their digital safe-deposit through public terminals at 
the municipal hall.

The Commission thinks that the introduction of the system will give a 
boost to the digitalisation of Dutch society. New developments like 
electronic commerce and payment systems for driving have a clear need 
for the availability of reliable personal data that easily can be 
transferred and checked.

The president of the Commission, I. Snellen, only sees advantages in 
the system. 'Citizens can give companies or others access to their 
safe-deposit. That is really an advantage, when for instance a 
pharmaceutical wants to check what medicine his patient is taking,' 
Snellen told the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.

According to Snellen, his idea will give more power to the citizen: 
'The safe-deposit is a service to citizens. It will enhance his 
position in the information society. He does not longer have to search 
for official data, or fill in over and over again the same inquiries. 
It is sufficient to give partial access to your safe-deposit.'

Snellen also points at the emerging e-commerce and e-governance. 'The 
citizen wants to shop worldwide and wants to vote on Internet. Our 
proposal stimulates these developments because reliable personal data 
are hard to find on the Internet. A company that is asked to send 
stuff, or an employer, who wants to check on an employee, will profit 
from a quick view into the digital safe-deposit.'

Civil liberties groups are outraged by the proposals. The digital 
safe-deposits will contain highly sensitive personal information and 
are vulnerable to hack attacks. It also centralises personal 
information, which creates the technical conditions for law 
enforcement authorities to get easy access to all the personal data of 
citizens. Furthermore there is the fear that for instance insurance 
companies will order access to the medical information before closing 
a deal. The commission states however that citizens are free to choose 
if they want to add information to their digital safe-deposits.



Saumya