A Breach of Trust: The Exposure of Society's Most Vulnerable

A Breach of Trust: The Exposure of Society's Most Vulnerable

December 16, 2024

On December 11, 2024, the realization slowly dawned that the social service database containing the welfare recipients' data had been exposed. It turns out that a government official accidentally sent the file to the parliamentary clerk and all its members during communication with their minister. Furthermore, I am the only one questioning how this data ended up in the hands of citizens and the media, who kept sharing the data. This is followed by the flawed reasoning that everything submitted to parliament is public, which is an invalid argument. At the very least, this breaches basic decency.

This incident not only proves that data privacy laws are a “wassen neus,” a “papieren tijger,” and a “dode letter,” but it also explains why people felt justified in refusing to participate in the 2023 census. And it happened before. A few years ago, data on the incomes of SEO CEOs leaked. Yet, there’s more: this database concerns more than 5,000 welfare recipients. Initially, the list contained 8,000 names but was “cleaned up.” This means it’s a record of the most vulnerable members of society—people who barely have a roof over their heads and rely on guaranteed daily meals. Their situation is hopeless; they are, in effect, pariahs. And that’s precisely how they are treated—not only by the government but also by their fellow citizens. The better off someone is, the more they tend to look down on these individuals.

Meanwhile, protests for affordable housing continue. Nothing substantial is being done about inflation, and public transport has disappeared from the discussion altogether—perhaps it will resurface during the upcoming election campaign.

Miguel Goede