Press Releases - Archive

In his letter sent to Ms Kori Udoviciki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, and Mr. Aleksandar Vulin, Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Commissioners for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic emphasized it was necessary to stop as soon as possible further processing of children's data the two Ministries ordered to be performed by city and municipal administrations by their joint letter of 21 October 2014.

In the said letter, the two Ministries demanded of city and municipal administrations to request from primary schools in their territories data on children (name and surname, unique personal identification number, school, class) who have more than 30 absences without excuse and to forward such data to child protection services in their city or municipality and informed them they would receive further instructions on 3 November.

Several city municipalities contacted the Commissioner immediately after they received this letter, asking him to provide his opinion on admissibility, basis and purpose of such processing of children's personal data.

The Commissioner asked both Ministries to state the legal basis for such data processing, i.e. for instructions of the Ministries sent to municipal administrations, reminding that the main principles of personal data processing, which are also the requirements for admissibility of data processing, are lawfulness, processing for intended purpose, proportionality, data safety and accuracy and timeliness.

The Commissioner also emphasized it was necessary to stop further processing as soon as possible until all dilemmas regarding the manner of children's data processing described above were eliminated and to inform all authorities that were ordered to perform such processing about this in order to prevent adverse consequences and to reduce the risk for the rights of underage persons.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has upheld the justifiability of the increasingly frequent responses and complaints by citizens and consumer movements against the "duty" to provide their personal data, including their unique personal identification numbers, to shop assistants when making complaints or returning goods. The Commissioner said requesting of such data from citizens is not only controversial from the aspect of purpose and unethical, but also unlawful.

The Commissioner recalled he had warned the Ministry of Finance as early as three years ago such data processing was inadmissible and suggested that it amended without delay the secondary legislation which was the "basis" for such processing. In that regard, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said the following:

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection enclosed with his letter to the Minister of Justice and the Serbian Government the Model Law on Personal Data Protection prepared by the Commissioner's Office.

The Commissioner has emphasized on several occasions that previous postponements and further delays in efforts to regulate this delicate field of human rights will certainly result in the increase of the already numerous existing problems. He emphasized this again recently in his letter sent to the Serbian Prime Minister.

Although it is not the Commissioner's duty, he publicly pledged to substantially contribute to the development of the new Law on Personal Data Protection and he kept his pledge by preparing the Model Law.

The Commissioner is confident that the Model Law he submitted to the Government could provide a sound basis for the new Law on Personal Data Protection which is necessary in Serbia.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection initiated the inspection monitoring of the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection in the Municipality of Obrenovac. The monitoring procedure was instituted due to the publication of over five thousand rulings within the "List of final rulings on state aid allocation that were issued in the period from 27 July to 16 September."