Speed limit cameras violate privacy laws: watchdog

Privacy watchdog Privacy First has filed a lawsuit against the State stating that speed limit cameras violate the privacy of citizens, RTL reports. The court will handle this case this month. Bas Filippini, president of Privacy First, deliberately broke the speed limit of the A2 and is now using the subsequent speeding ticket to get his case in front of the court. "I feel that someone is continuously looking over my shoulder and I do not know what happens to the data", he told RTL. Everyone who passes the speed limit cameras get registered, even if they are not speeding. The question that the court now has to answer is whether this is permitted under Dutch law. Filippini's lawyer, Benito Boer, thinks that he has a good chance of winning. According to him, there has to be a clear law that states what happens to the data and how long the government is allowed to keep it. The tax authorities has been using the data to track down tax evaders for some time. Filippini thinks that's going to far. Former prosecutor Koos Spee agrees with him, and thinks it is too bad as the cameras have made the roads safer. "In the beginning, when when we just got these cameras, the data was stored a maximum of three days and then thrown away. But at some point the tax authorities and police started to use the cameras to detect crime. The data is kept for longer, even that of people who were not speeding. The case will appear in court on April 28th.