News item | 11-25-2022 | 00:00
Knowledge of data protection within Defense has increased since the Land Information Center Maneuver (LIMC) was discontinued. Things have improved, but Defense is not there yet. That is the conclusion of the Eiffel and the FG report (data protection officer) that Minister Kajsa Ollongren sent to the House today.
In the Eiffel report, 26 activities of various defense units were assessed for compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Only activities labeled as risky were investigated. Eiffel estimates that 18 of the 20 current activities are GDPR compliant or could be in the short term. An activity that does not comply with the GDPR has already been stopped during the investigation. An activity related to internal security is placed with the MIVD. This is the solution for now.
The minister has indicated that he will adopt the improvement measures from both reports. Like drafting data protection impact assessments and updating the processing register.
These reports have also been shared with the Brouwer Committee. This independent committee was set up by the current cabinet and is commissioned by the Ministry of Defense to investigate the collection and storage of personal data by the armed forces. The final report is expected to be completed before Christmas.
Importance information
Information from public sources is important to the Ministry of Defense for the performance of tasks and operational management. This information may contain personal data. The government may only collect personal data with a legal basis. It is important that there is sufficient knowledge about this within the Ministry of Defence.