Defendant : Westtoer APB a public entity giving autonomous services in the area of tourism in the province of West -Flanders. – Violation Found (Belgium, 2021)

Violation Found
Autorité de Protection des Données17 February 2021Belgium
final
ePrivacy
Violation Found

A public tourism entity in Belgium faced scrutiny for using intelligent cameras to count passers-by during the Covid-19 pandemic. The investigation revealed that they did not follow proper data protection principles, which is crucial for maintaining public trust.

What happened

The entity used cameras that potentially violated data protection rules.

Who was affected

Members of the public whose data may have been collected by the cameras.

What the authority found

The authority found that the entity did not adequately inform the public or justify the use of the cameras.

Why this matters

This case serves as a reminder that even public entities must adhere to data protection laws. Organizations should ensure transparency and purpose when collecting personal data.

GDPR Articles Cited

AI-verified

Art. 6(GDPR)
Art. 12(GDPR)
Art. 13(GDPR)
Art. 25(GDPR)
Art. 30(GDPR)
Art. 38(GDPR)
Art. 7(1) GDPR
Art. 7(3) GDPR
Art. 35(2) GDPR
Art. 35(7) GDPR
View original scraped data
Art. 6(GDPR)
Art. 7(1) GDPR
Art. 7(3) GDPR
Art. 12(GDPR)
Art. 13(GDPR)
Art. 25(GDPR)
Art. 30(GDPR)
Art. 35(2) GDPR
Art. 35(7) GDPR
Art. 38(GDPR)

Original data from scraper before AI verification against source document.

National Law Articles

AI-identified

63,1
Source verified 12 April 2026
articles corrected
Full Legal Summary
Detailed

Facts : 1/ The defendant is an autonomous provincial public entity working in the sector of tourism for the province of West-Flanders. 2/ The defendant decided to place intelligent cameras in order to provide a passer-by counts at specific locations in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic. 3/ To this end, the defendant issued a public contract on behalf of the coastal municipalities, which was awarded on June 9, 2020 to company X, which acts as processor. 4/ An investigation was launched by the DPA to submit a file to the Inspection Service since the serious evidence that the use of intelligent cameras by the defendant could give rise to an infringement of the fundamental principles of the protection of personal data. The DPA's inspection states the following : 1) Infringement by the defendant of the principles of lawfulness, propriety and transparency as well as the principle of purpose limitation and the principle of data minimization and accountability. The Inspectorate states first of all that the defendant does not adequately demonstrate that the data subjects are properly and transparently informed and that the defendant insufficiently demonstrates that the processing of personal data by the relevant intelligent cameras is for specific, explicit and legitimate purposes. The defendant insufficiently demonstrates that the personal data processed by the intelligent cameras is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes for which the data is processed. 2) Infringement of Article 6.1 GDPR. The Inspectorate is of the opinion that the defendant does not demonstrate why it is necessary for the achievement of its mission of public interest to process personal data via intelligent cameras. 3) The Inspection Service determines that the information provided by the defendant through the privacy statement published on the website www.westtoer.be/nl/data processing is not completely correct and transparent. 4) The Inspectorate determin

Outcome

Violation Found

The DPA found a violation but did not impose a fine.

Related Enforcement Actions (0)

No other enforcement actions found for Defendant : Westtoer APB a public entity giving autonomous services in the area of tourism in the province of West -Flanders. in BE

This is the only recorded action for this entity in this jurisdiction.

Details

Decision Date

17 February 2021

Authority

Autorité de Protection des Données

GDPRhub ID

gdprhub-3192

About this data

Data: GDPRhub (noyb.eu)
Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Cite as: Cookie Fines. Defendant : Westtoer APB a public entity giving autonomous services in the area of tourism in the province of West -Flanders. - Belgium (2021). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu

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