For the purposes of celebrating the 28th of January as the Personal Data Protection Day, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection held a public conference during which he spoke about the main challenges in the field of personal data protection and the work of the Commissioner. The video of the conference is available at  http://www.mc.rs/dan-zastite-podataka-o-licnosti.4.html?eventId=8841#videos.  

Inadequate legal framework: the legislation is not harmonized with legal standards of personal data protection, many areas are not regulated at all (video surveillance, biometrics, security checks), and the adoption of important regulation is late by several years. The deadline for the adoption of the regulation outlining the manner of safekeeping of especially sensitive data passed in May 2009, the deadline for the adoption of the action plan based on the Personal Data Protection Strategy passed in November 2010; inadequate premises for the work of the Commissioner: the lack of adequate premises was emphasized as the top priority among the political criteria during the expert mission of the European Commission at the beginning of 2012;

The lack of resources: besides the existence of highly qualified personnel, due to the lack of adequate working premises, the Commissioner is not able to hire enough employees and ensure prompt reaction in protecting the rights. The lack of systematic approach towards the improvement of knowledge and awareness of personal data protection: compared to the countries in which even the school curriculums were altered to include personal data protection thematics, personal data protection is still not considered significant enough in Serbia. Individuals, unaware of their rights and the possibilities of abuse, provide their personal data and contribute to the baseless personal data processing that could have serious consequences afterwards.

The Commissioner thanked the citizens' associations and the media for their support, without which, taken into consideration the lack of effort in the field of personal data protection by the state authorities, it would not be possible to speak of any kind of progress. The Commissioner asked the media and the citizens' associations to become even more active, especially in educating the citizens, raising awareness and reminding the state authorities and others of their obligation to respect and improve the right to personal data protection as the right guaranteed by the Constitution.