Netherlands wants banks to store all transactions over 100 euros in a big database. Privacy laws could be abused catastrophically, say critics.
🇳🇱 The Dutch minister of Finance, who also happens to be the co-chair of the Global Action Group at the WEF, is now looking to introduce a law to monitor ALL transactions over €100. If that doesn’t worry you I don’t know what to tell you. pic.twitter.com/nKevaBNtVC
— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) October 31, 2022
Banks could share information about their clients’ business transactions to detect money laundering under a bill proposed by the Finance Ministry. It’s reported, however, that the proposed legislation may fall foul of privacy concerns since tackling criminal activity is impacting ordinary accounts.
In preparation for implementing a digital central bank currency (CBDC), the Dutch government plans to track almost all citizens’ transactions. With a “digital euro,” only the smallest payments would remain anonymous.
This measure aims to stop money laundering and terrorism financing. Various organizations say the cabinet opens the door to massive privacy violations.
“The government assumes that there is a lot of money laundering by consumers. Or that they even finance terrorism. […] The risk is that the law opens the door to unprecedented mass surveillance by banks. The Rutte cabinet is playing with constitutional fire,” Ellen Timmer of the Pellicaan law firm told De Andere Krant .
“The proposed monitoring really goes too far. All your payment behavior will soon be collected centrally and monitored with algorithms,” the Dutch Data Protection Authority also responds in that newspaper.
The Privacy First foundation even speaks of a “banking dragnet” for the Netherlands if the bill is not critically examined.
“Trend of increasing control on financial traffic from governments”
Several experts smell danger and even see a link with the imminent adoption of CBDCs.
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“This is probably related to the planned CBDCs, where only small payments will still be anonymous, while all larger payments will be registered and monitored,” noted investor and author Willem Middelkoop sounded the alarm on Twitter.
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Middelkoop, also known as The Oracle from Amsterdam for his early prophetic statements about cryptocurrency Bitcoin, also points to the fact that the Dutch Queen Máxima was present at the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank this month. There she gave a speech defending CBDCs as a tool for inclusivity.
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De Andere Krant also makes the link with Máxima and the way in which authorities apparently impose CBDCs on the people. “The bill appears to be a new step in a trend of increasing government controls on financial traffic,” the newspaper writes.
