The personal details of demonstrators are regularly requested by the police. Even if they have never been arrested. Climate activist Sieger Sloot was given access to his data requested by the police, and saw that in addition to his personal information, that of his partner, children and parents had also been requested dozens of times.
Demonstration – NH News
“I was amazed,” says climate activist Sieger Sloot as he leafs through a thick file. It states how often, when and what information the police requested from him.
“On October 15, 2022, a few weeks before I participated in a protest at Schiphol with Extinction Rebellion where we wanted to ground private jets, you see that the police and military police requested information several times. And from that moment on, they also requested data of my partners, parents and children.”
‘Police collect data on a large scale’
And Sloot is no exception. From a survey of Investico, Fidelity and The Green Amsterdammerit appears that the police are collecting data from demonstrators on a large scale.
It also happened to Akelei de Lange, activist of Extinction Rebellion and Kick Out Zwarte Piet, among others. “It turned out that the police have requested data from me sixty times in the past two years. And also with numbers of seventeen times a day. Why the need for half a police force to look me up in the system?”
“If demonstrators are afraid to take to the streets, you can say that the rule of law is at stake”
According to the activists, the request for information by the police creates an intimidating feeling. “If there is a police car in front of my house now, I think twice whether I open the door when the doorbell rings,” says De Lange.
Sloot has gotten used to it by now. Prior to an Extinction Rebellion protest in January, he was visited at home by the police. The goal: to arrest him for sedition for participating in that protest and calling on others to do the same. He was not at home – his wife and child were – but later turned himself in to the police.
Sloot finds it particularly worrying that ordinary police officers, who are not involved in a specific investigation, have access to the private data. “Why should you be able to have information about my wife and children?” Sloot wonders.
Ot van Daalen is a lawyer and researcher at the University of Amsterdam. He specializes in privacy and cybersecurity, and found the results of the study worrying. “Pretty shocking that so much data is requested from demonstrators. But what I find perhaps even more shocking is that it is not kept track of why they request that data,” says Van Daalen.
Children and partners also under scrutiny
A spokesperson for the police said in a response: “If people announce online that they are going to do criminal things, such as occupying a highway, that may be a reason to look who these people are.”
But according to the spokesperson, it is not the intention that the data of the parents, children and partners of demonstrators are also requested by the police. “The fact that parents and children of demonstrators and activists are also being questioned on a large scale, as the media write, cannot be explained. We are investigating whether this is correct and if so, why this is happening, also to tighten our working method where necessary.”
According to Van Daalen, the consequences for the right to demonstrate are major. “I’m not against the government being able to use certain data. That can even be good. But you have to explain it well and make sure it doesn’t go too far. So if it gets to the point that people feel intimidated or are afraid to to take to the streets because their data might be registered, then you could say that the rule of law is at stake.”
“Civil disobedience in this case is a civic duty
It does not deter activists Sloot and De Lange. “It only makes me angrier and more combative, I will certainly continue”, De Lange declares. She understands that the police want to collect data from people during disruptive protests, but says that the collection of this data is disproportionate. “It’s really overrun.”
And Sloot has not become more reserved because of this research. “We wonder what is more radical: blocking a highway or subsidizing the fossil industry with 17.5 billion euros a year. That is 48 million euros a day. I think that’s criminal. So I don’t really think it’s that radical at all to argue against it. In fact, civil disobedience in this case is a civic duty”.
‘Important task for the legislator’
Van Daalen fears that this phenomenon will only increase in the future: “I therefore think that there is an important task for the legislator to call the police to order here: if you request data, do it for a reason. “