Belgium's New Government Sets Privacy High on the Agenda, Appointing Minister of Privacy

Belgium will have for the first time in history a member of the cabinet dedicated to privacy. The Flemish liberal Bart Tommelein will be the Secretary of State (i.e. a member of the cabinet assigned to a Minister) responsible for privacy matters. The Secretary of State's other competences include combating social fraud, an activity that typically benefits from extensive use of personal data. It will be interesting to see how he will reconcile the (potential) privacy-invasive nature of his combat against social fraud with his duty to protect privacy. This seems to indicate that the new government intends to play a very active role in legislating privacy laws.