Defendant : Westtoer APB a public entity giving autonomous services in the area of tourism in the province of West -Flanders. – Violation Found (Belgium, 2021)
General GDPR enforcement action
This case relates to broader data protection obligations, not specifically to cookie or consent banner compliance. It is not included in cookie statistics or the Risk Calculator.
Westtoer APB faced scrutiny for using smart cameras to count visitors without properly informing the public. The data protection authority found that the company did not clearly explain how it was collecting and using personal data. This ruling serves as a reminder for public entities to be transparent about their data practices.
What happened
Westtoer APB used intelligent cameras for visitor counting but failed to inform the public about data collection.
Who was affected
Visitors in the province of West-Flanders who were potentially tracked by the smart cameras.
What the authority found
The authority determined that Westtoer APB did not adequately demonstrate compliance with data protection principles, particularly regarding transparency and purpose limitation.
Why this matters
This case underscores the need for transparency in data collection practices, especially for public entities. Organizations should ensure they clearly communicate their data usage to the public.
GDPR Articles Cited
View original scraped data
Original data from scraper before AI verification against source document.
National Law Articles
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
About this data
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
Last updated: