Dutch police remove photos from social media over privacy complaints

Since November there were two cases of the Dutch police removing photos or videos from their social media feeds after complaints about privacy violations, Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security said in response to parliamentary questions on the police's social media policy, NU.nl reports.

The police regularly post self-made photos and videos on social media with the intention of giving people more insight into police work. But these images are not allowed to show anything that can be traced directly or indirectly to a person. In November last year the police placed a form on its website with which people can object if they believe they've been misrepresented in one of these photos or videos.

According to Grapperhaus, 13 of these forms have been submitted since November and the police investigated eight of them. In two cases it was concluded that images on social media indeed showed privacy sensitive information, and these images have been removed. The investigations into the remaining cases are still ongoing.