Ministry of Social Affairs is ordered to delete all illegally gathered data on Muslims
The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) has ordered the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment to delete all the illegally gathered personal data that the ministry has of members of Muslim communities. The data was obtained via secret investigations, which the mosques and people were not aware of.
People will have two more months to see what info the government had gathered on them between 2016 and 2019. The ministry conducted 12 investigations during that time, in which 31 people were investigated specifically, the AP discovered. The ministry wanted to use this to map out Salafism and radicalization.
The AP began an investigation into the ministry’s actions on September 23, 2023. The Data Protection Authority looked into 3,000 documents, including reports, transcripts, e-mails, and notes.
“The reports on the investigations of these people contain personal data such as name, education, employer, function, behavior, religious beliefs and ideas. In addition, 100s of people are mentioned in reports and other documents. Their names are mentioned, and their relationship to the person was investigated,” the AP said.
The AP notified the ministry of their obligation to inform all the citizens that they had collected illegal data on their right to file a request to see the info. The ministry then sent a letter notifying the people of their right to file an access request. 12 people were also sent a letter of apology from the minister of social affairs at the time, Karien van Gennip.
“The lives of innocent people have been investigated without their knowledge. Not by an intelligence service or the police but by a ministry. This was wrong and discriminatory. The ministry has acknowledged this, and that is a good first step. But that is not the end of the story. The ministry must destroy the illegally collected data in two months so that people still have the opportunity to see what exactly has been registered about them,” Aleid Wolfsen, the chairman of the AP, said.
