GovChat-NL/LAICA

Province of Limburg

GovChat-NL is an open-source AI platform for Dutch government agencies. Within the Province of Limburg, its implementation is referred to as the Limburg AI Chat Assistant (LAICA). The platform consists of an AI-powered chat assistant and an App Launcher that allows employees to access various AI applications.

Last change on 28th of April 2025, at 11:54 (CET) | Publication Standard 1.0

• Publication category: Impactful algorithms
• Impact assessment: DPIA
• Status: In use

General information

Theme

Organisation and business operations

Begin date

feb-25

Contact information

[e-mail]

Link to publication website

https://limburg.nl/bestuur/open-overheid/algoritmeregister

Link to source registration

https://github.com/jeannotdamoiseaux/GovChat-NL 

Responsible use

Goal and impact

GovChat-NL was developed as a secure, open-source AI platform that serves as an alternative to public chatbots (such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek) and commercial solutions (such as Copilot). The platform enables governments to deploy government-specific AI applications, with full control over data processing, privacy and integration within existing IT environments (centralised management vs decentralised freedom).

With GovChat-NL/LAICA, civil servants have a digital assistant to support them in performing their daily tasks efficiently.

Considerations

The use of public and/or commercial chatbots can be undesirable because of the lack of clarity about what happens to the data. Contractual agreements are often lacking, making it uncertain how and by whom the data is stored, processed or shared. This poses a risk to privacy and may not comply with laws and regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Because of the risks of using public/commercial versions of chatbots, the Province of Limburg chooses as a protective measure: developing its own secure chatbot.

Human intervention

GovChat-NL (LAICA) is not used for automated decision-making. Employees use the system to ask questions and receive AI-generated answers to them. The final assessment, interpretation and application of these answers always remains the responsibility of the employee. The system therefore only supports the work process and does not make decisions on behalf of the organisation.

Risk management

Privacy and security risks are carefully addressed when using GovChat-NL/LAICA. Users are actively reminded of the importance of personal data caution when entering text. As soon as the system suspects that personal data is being entered, a warning follows immediately. Through guidelines, awareness-raising activities and training courses, employees are constantly reminded not to share personal data in conversations, and it remains emphasised that LAICA serves only as a tool and is not a substitute for professional knowledge. This is also communicated in the interface ("LAICA can make mistakes. Check important information.").

LAICA is not linked to other systems and does not process third-party personal data unless it is entered by the user himself. Personal data is not shared with external parties such as OpenAI or Microsoft, including when external language models are used. Conversation history is securely stored within a provincial virtual machine (VM) on an SQL database and automatically deleted after one month. Users can additionally opt for temporary chat, where no data is stored. Within the application, strict access based on Role-based Access Control (RBAC) applies; only the user himself and the application administrator have access to the chat history. Login is only possible through a provincial account.

After termination of the contract, the province has 90 days to secure and delete all (personal) data. Employees are permanently reminded of the importance of handling personal data responsibly and the risks of exporting calls outside the system, intentionally or otherwise.

Elaboration on impact assessments

IAMA to come

Impact assessment

Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA): https://github.com/jeannotdamoiseaux/GovChat-NL/blob/main/docs/implementaties/provincie-limburg-dpia.pdf

Operations

Data

GovChat-NL supports virtually every LLM from every LLM provider, including OpenAI, Ollama, Azure AI and Vertex AI.

Technical design

GovChat-NL is developed based on open-source technologies. At its core is OpenWebUI, which provides a scalable and customisable architecture. Integration with Large Language Models (LLMs) uses LiteLLM, which allows flexible connection of different models.

At the Province of Limburg, the implementation (LAICA) is realised using a Docker Image, hosted via at Hetzner Elestio. The language models are hosted in Microsoft Azure and Google Vertex AI. Access and security of the platform is via Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory), which centrally controls user identity, authorisation and Single Sign-On (SSO). Further technical details can be found in the public documentation: https://github.com/jeannotdamoiseaux/GovChat-NL/blob/main/docs/implementaties/provincie-limburg.md .

External provider

Developed internally by the Province of Limburg

Link to code base

https://github.com/jeannotdamoiseaux/GovChat-NL