Press Releases - Archive

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection informs all citizens who intend to participate in the prize game “Receipt for a Win” that they have no obligation to write their Unique Personal Identification Number on the back of the envelopes which they use to send the fiscal receipts they collected in order to participate in this prize game. Such obligation lacks a proper basis, purpose or reason and would most definitely pose an unnecessary and serious risk of abuse of this complex piece of personal data.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has sent a letter to the Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, in which he called on the Government to urgently undertake measures to eliminate the illegalities and shortcomings concerning the Integrated Health Information System(IHIS), in particular with a view to preventing the severe harmful consequences that may arise if the personal data processed in that system are compromised and abused.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection would like to once again remind all state authorities that hold citizens’ personal data and the officials and employees of those authorities that they have an undeniable duty under the law to treat those data fairly and responsibly.

In his letter sent to the Minister of Health, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection called for urgent action to ensure that personal data in the Integrated Health Management System (IHIS) are protected from unauthorised access and any other abuse and that the functioning of the IHIS is regulated in the only proper way – by a law. The Commissioner had previously found in an inspection procedure that the Ministry of Health had implemented the IHIS as a centralised personal data collection in electronic form, which it uses for processing the personal data of patients (including the data identified as “particularly sensitive” under the law) and employees in 451 health care institutions.