Source: Blic
Guest commentator
Rodoljub Sabic, Commissioner for Information
Several days before the New Year physician John Doe sent me an e-mail, in which he wrote, among other things, the following: "I learned by accident that some of the protocols of the Urgent Medical Assistance Service in ... are missing. I was told that many protocols had been taken as early as two years ago to the Ministry of Internal Affairs ... because of an investigation. Each of those protocols contains complete information on thousands of our patients - from their names and addresses, over unique personal identification numbers (JMBG) to complete medical information, diagnosis and therapy.
As I am informed, the law requires that these data should be kept as official secret and stipulates that in case it is necessary, they may be issued only under a court order in writing. I was informed that there was no court order, but that inspectors of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and their lawyer requested those protocols. I think that even if there had been a court order, medical information of several hundreds of citizens, 99 percent of which probably have nothing to do with the supposed investigation, should not have been given to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This and other similar cases, which are probably very frequent in our country, create a sense of complete vulnerability of citizens, omnipotence and arrogance of the police and return of this society to a time we should have left behind us a long time ago. Please investigate this case in order to at least try to prevent similar violations of citizens' privacy."
The situation which physician John Doe described is certainly only one of a number of examples of violation of privacy and the right to personal data protection we are often unaware of. This is why it is worth reminding that our new Law on Personal Data Protection is in effect as of the first day of the next year. Most of the citizens recognize this Law as the condition for the EU association process and inclusion in the famous visa waiver program with the EU. But one thing is more important than that. If all the necessary assumptions for the implementation of this Law are provided, although they will unfortunately be delayed as usual, it could efficiently help us to finally leave things such as vulnerability, omnipotence and arrogance behind us.
