Source: 24 časa
By this law, Serbia would finally provide for the protection, processing and use of personal data, as well as the right to privacy. The Bill was submitted to the Assembly in an expedited procedure...The Draft Law on Personal Data Protection is a serious attempt to establish personal data protection mechanisms, but some provisions have to be changed to prevent security agencies and police in particular from depriving of any sense the provisions which guarantee personal data protection, said Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, in an interview for 24 sata .
PRIVACY - By this law, Serbia would finally provide for protection, processing and use of personal data, as well as the right to privacy. The Bill was submitted to the Assembly in an expedited procedure. Explaining the need for such law, Sabic says that it is a natural consequence of a person's right not to be disturbed by the government or anybody else . In the developed democratic societies this right is very high ranked in the human values list, and our interviewee says that Serbia dramatically lags behind in this respect.
What kind of data should be protected?
- All data referring to a person: health condition, political affiliation, sexual inclinations, ethnicity, religion... Everybody should be sure that his or her personal data can be used by the government and the others only with his or her consent, and without it only according to the law.
Does the Draft Law leave the possibilities for abuse?
- We can only imagine most of the problems. I think that there are more than serious indications that personal data abuse exists on all levels at the moment, but the bad thing is that its real dimensions are actually unknown to us.
Do you have any objections to the Draft Law?
- There are some provisions which deserve to be criticised. these include primarily the said powers of security agencies and police regulated by the provision or the paragraph 2, Article 45. That norm is legally as well as logically inconsistent. I will talk to deputies and the Ombudsman to try to arrange for an amendment which would eliminate this bad solution.
Is the right to privacy threatened by the taking of biometric data?
- No, if these data are taken according to the law and in order to achieve the public interests based on the law. The main issue is protection of this data, prevention of their possible abuse.
Use of data only with personal consent
- Personal data of citizens can be used by the government bodies, media and many other entities for different commercial and other purposes. The important thing is that the use of data, regardless of who uses them, always necessarily includes either personal consent or explicit authority set by the law - says Sabic. R. Bulatovic
