The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection concluded the inspection of the application of the Law on Personal Data Protection in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), concerning a video clip showing two young individuals engaged in a sexual act, which was published on the Internet and originated from a MIA video surveillance system for monitoring and recording road s and traffic in Belgrade.

The Commissioner issued a warning to the MIA for acting contrary to provisions of Article 47 of the Law on Personal Data Protection, by not undertaking all organisational and technical safety measures for to protect data from abuse; requested a report on measures and activities, undertaken and planned, to be submitted within 15 days; and filed criminal charges with the Office of the Prosecutor against unknown persons for violation of Article 146 (3) of the Criminal Code.

Pertaining to the above, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabić stated as follows:

“This event represents an extremely severe violation of privacy and a serious breach of the Law on Personal Data Protection. Circumstances indicate that the video clip was handled by an unknown officer of the MIA of the Republic of Serbia, contrary to the Act, and unrelated to the purpose for which it was documented (safety of property and persons, maintaining public peace and order, traffic control, etc.); it was recorded onto a mobile device and removed from the offices, whereupon it was placed on the Internet, where it still remains, in numerous locations.

The inspection established a lack of necessary procedures, as well as security failures which resulted in this incident. Consequently, the list of potential perpetrators is exceedingly long, making identification substantially more difficult. This would certainly not be the case if such very delicate data were handled more restrictively, in keeping with clear, precise, pre-determined procedures, with greater control and attention. With this in mind, I have issued a Warning, with 14 itemized measures and activities to be undertaken for dealing with the faults noted.

Insisting on the safety aspect of the functioning of the video surveillance system is an opportunity to stress once again that Serbia has not yet adopted a Video Surveillance Act. An unknown, but certainly large number of persons undertakes various video surveillance activities. The lack of applicable legislation, and naturally, no consistent practical application of such laws is a fact that, in itself, presents a source of numerous risks and potential abuse. If this fact is not amended in the near future, it is almost inevitable for us to face more and more severe and intensive forms of privacy infringements and law violations.”