My car and my privacy
We got this “big thing” going on in Holland; our Government wants to put a GPS device in ALL cars in Holland.
This GPS is able to “record” the amount of kilometers/miles we make on the Dutch roads…..and of course; on WHICH roads.
This data will be send to our Government and they will make a nice calculation; then we have to pay a certain amount per kilometer as “road tax”.
At this moment we are also paying road tax…. depending on the province you live in – and depending on the brand/weight/fuel of the car – we pay a certain amount per year.
So a small car, which does not use a lot of fuel, is much cheaper than a big car, which is using a lot of fuel.
According to government we should change it into paying per kilometer….!
Fair enough uh..??
Well; I do have 2 problems………….
First they say that it will be much cheaper to most people…
I can assure – I am not “most people”…..
At this moment I do have a environmental friendly car; which gives me a road tax of 80 euro per year….
But – as I am driving a lot; 110 kilometer per day….. – my NEW road tax will be 1.7 cents per kilometer – 5 days a week – 50 weeks (Yep – I also have holidays) = 467.50 euro per year….!!
And you know what…?? The 2nd problem!
With me, paying this extra amount, my government is also able to look at the data and will be able to see when and where I have been speeding… if I park my car “wrongly”…. and a lot more….!!!
With paying almost 400 euro PER YEAR MORE…. I am giving up my privacy while driving my car…..
And our government is even admitting they can and will use this data if they think a person did something “illegal or criminal”…..
As you can imagine; this is a big thing in Holland.
Seems like our privacy is floating away….
See; Telegraaf.nl – Staat gluurt mee (Dutch)
Sjeltur, this is weird. Why did they think about that? I know already people every where pay taxes in license, from city to city on high-ways ..etc!
Hi Hicham…. I do think they are doing it on purpose…
Wouldn’t it be easy… to not need police officers to make speeding tickets..?? It will all go “automatically”….
I will get a bill which will mention the kilometers I drive + extra line on which my speeding ticket is mentioned….
You can call it “good thinking” even… BUT – with that – they take my privacy away…. And if the Dutch people just “let them”…..
The KGB would have been jealous….
I am amazed by your post. The new tax system in Holland sounds awful. In the U.S. we wouldn’t like that much, but these days our government is also proposing to take away much of our freedoms and replace with government oversight. I don’t like it either.