Press Releases - Archive

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection is pleased with the response and reaction of the National Health Insurance Fund ("the Fund") to the warning notice he sent to this institution due to irregularities in the processing of personal data of the insured.

The Fund confirmed in its response that it will entirely comply with the warning, and that all organizational units of the Fund have already been notified to immediately cease the unlawful data processing.

The Commissioner previously performed an inspection supervision procedure during which it was established that the Fund requires, for the payment of compensation for temporary inability to work, from employers to obtain from the insured full assessment of expert-medical body and to communicate it to the Fund. The Fund, as a "basis" for such data processing, cited provisions of the Rulebook on the manner and procedure for exercising the right under compulsory health insurance.

In this regard, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic said the following:

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection welcomes that the Administration for the Enforcement of Penal Sanctions ordered all institutions for the enforcement of penal sanctions to urgently act upon the recommendations and comments of the Commissioner regarding unlawful processing of personal data. The Commissioner, however, at the same time reminds to the limited range of specific measures since some problems are systematic and cannot be rectified by individual actions, but they must be addressed at the global, national plan.

The Commissioner sent the recommendations and comments to the Administration for the Enforcement of Penal Sanctions after performed inspection supervision, in the second half of 2014, over the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection in the Administration and institutions for the enforcement of penal sanctions. The supervision showed numerous shortcomings and omissions in connection with the processing of personal data of persons deprived of their liberty, but also visitors and employees.

In addition to the shortcomings in connection with the unlawful and excessive processing of personal data of visitors or excessively "transparent" processing of personal data of employees, uncontrolled video surveillance, the attitude towards data on the health status and mental health of inmates deserved special attention. Although it is required, necessary and justified that only health services of the institution deal with the processing of such data, security services have intensively done it too. Cumulative records of inmates are kept not adequately secured and accessible to unauthorized persons, in certain cases, even to inmates. It is necessary to ensure that the sensitive data, subject to possible abuse, is kept in an appropriate manner and be available solely to the competent services.

Since the health information and data on convictions for offenses under the law fall into the category of so-called particularly sensitive data, this is an opportunity to once again remind you of the great, incomprehensible omission in normative activities of the Government in relation to the protection of personal data.

In fact, although Article 16 of the Law on Personal Data Protection provides that particularly sensitive data must be protected by special safeguards, and that the filing method and the scope of safeguards shall be defined by the Government, upon obtaining the Commissioner's opinion, the Government, after six years of delay, has not yet passed appropriate regulation.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has sent a letter to the Government of Serbia pointing to the pressing need for the Government to ensure the consistent application of its own Rules of Procedure in preparing legislation, warning about negative consequences of non-compliance with the Rules in fields of the Commissioner's competence, especially in the field of personal data protection.

In this regard, the Commissioner stated the following regarding:

Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has received a report on measures taken by the Republican Geodetic Authority regarding Commissioner's warning that the Real Estate Cadaster is in practice making available numerous personal data of holders of rights without any legal grounds and without taking into account the appropriateness and proportionality of data processing, contrary to the Law on Personal Data Protection.

Commissioner evaluates the measures taken by the Republican Geodetic Authority as positive and timely. It is important and good that the level of transparency required to ensure an important function of the Cadaster - legal certainty, will be established in the future, without concomitant violation and endangering of the right to personal data protection.