In connection with lists of recipients of free meals in soup kitchens which were published yesterday, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection initiated enforcement of the Personal Data Protection at the City Centre for Social Work in Belgrade.

The Commissioner said it was commendable that these lists had already been removed; however, it is inadmissible and beyond belief that they had been visibly displayed at the Unit of the City Centre for Social Work in Rakovica.

The Commissioner reminds that data on the use of social welfare use are by their nature very delicate and that their processing constitutes a particularly intrusive invasion of privacy. This is why the Law on Personal Data Protection (Article 16) itself classifies them as "particularly sensitive data" the processing of which is allowed only with explicit written consent of a data subject. According to this Law (Article 57, paragraph 1, item 5), processing of such data is a punishable infringement which implies imposition of a fine in the amount between 50,000 and one million dinars for legal entities and a fine in the amount between 5,000 and 50,000 dinars for responsible natural persons.

The Commissioner's authorized persons will carry out direct inspection today at the Centre for Social Work and will find all relevant facts. After completion of inspection, the Commissioner will as always inform the public about the measures which will be taken.