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The municipality's Audit Committee also warned that the municipality did not have its privacy policy in order.

The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) is intensifying its supervision of the municipality of Eindhoven. The AP has signals that the municipality does not report data leaks or does not report them on time, omits mandatory scans for privacy risks and stores personal data of citizens for too long. The improvement plan submitted by Eindhoven has not allayed the AP's concerns. The AP has been in talks with the municipality of Eindhoven for some time, due to various indications that the municipality does not handle personal data properly.

"Citizens must be able to trust that their municipality handles their personal data with care. As a citizen, you cannot choose: the municipality in which you live collects and uses your personal data. Municipalities also manage a lot of sensitive data from their residents."

The municipality's Audit Committee also warned that the municipality did not have its privacy policy in order and that the municipality was not complying with the mandatory DPIAs. The municipality is said to have introduced, among other things, an environmental pass and a pressure meter without doing that risk analysis, and a trial with an app that links job seekers to vacancies using an algorithm. On March 1, the Dutch Data Protection Authority sent a brief to the mayor and aldermen of the municipality of Eindhoven.

independent supervision

Within the municipality, there is independent supervision of proper implementation and compliance with the GDPR. This supervisor is also referred to as the Data Protection Officer (FG). You can contact the DPO for all matters related to the processing of personal data. You can also submit a complaint to the Dutch Data Protection Authority, the national supervisor for compliance with the GDPR.

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According to the Eindhoven municipality Is there a data breach if your data has fallen into the wrong hands? For example, if the municipality addresses a letter incorrectly so that you can view someone else's data. But also if one of our digital information systems is hacked or if a USB stick, laptop or smartphone is lost.

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Eindhoven
The municipality's Audit Committee also warned that the municipality did not have its privacy policy in order.

Eindhoven needs to tighten things up a bit when it comes to the safe processing of personal data. Data breaches are reported too late and the mandatory self-assessments take too long, wrote data protection officer Marielle van den Bos in her annual report back in 2021.

As far as AP Vice-President Monique Verdier is concerned, citizens must be able to trust that their municipality handles their personal data with due care. After a letter in July and a meeting between the AP and the municipality in September, the AP instructed the municipality to draw up an improvement plan. According to Verdier, that improvement plan is below par. For example, it seems that the municipality does not adhere to retention periods for personal data and the policy for conducting DPIAs does not seem to be in order. There are also concerns about dealing with data leaks and the question is whether the municipality is properly following the advice of the DPO. All in all, the municipality seems to insufficiently recognize the seriousness and urgency of the concerns. This requires extra attention from the Dutch Data Protection Authority.

intensification

The first step in this intensified supervision is that the AP has instructed the municipality to send a report within two months with more information and documents about data leaks, DPIAs, retention periods, the position of the DPO and several other topics from the improvement plan. Depending on that information, the AP determines which further steps are required. “In doing so, we are emphatically keeping the option open to scale up our intervention,” says Monique Verdier.

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