10/23/2008

Belgium will have its own super police information database without supervision

When databases like that are made in the US there is an congressional investigation, auditors and lawsuits. Here it will be decided - as always has been done - by a technical lawtext that doesn't have to pass parliament and on which parliament isn't consulted or informed.

That wouldn't be a problem if the access and use of the information would be scrictly controlled which isn't the case according to the leaked document. There are for this two possibilities.

One the supervision is given to Comité P of the parliament that already controls the police services. THe commission gets also the funding to ask specialists and auditors to make every year a report and the commission also has the authority to set up a cadre of rules and standards that have to be followed.

Two the Privacy Commission - which is highly critical of the Database project - gets a subcommission for Police data (just as it has for medical data and other databases) in which are delegates of the privacy commission, the police and external specialists. They would also need the funding to make every year a report and to do audits and controls and set a cadre of standards and rules.

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