Source: Blic
The Privatization Agency has been publishing successively for days lists of several dozen thousands of citizens which contain, apart from their names, surnames and names of their parents, their unique personal identification numbers (JMBG).
Even after the Commissioner's public warning that no one may treat personal data at his/her own will, that use of such data is allowed only for the purposes for which it was envisaged and only to the extent necessary to achieve that purpose even when it is stipulated by the law and that publishing of unique personal identification numbers (JMBG) of several thousands of citizens is neither set by law nor necessary and it is contrary to elementary standards of personal data protection, the Privatization Agency did not stop the action.
The Agency even reacted to the warning by giving public announcement in which it stated, among other things, the following: "The Law on Personal Data Protection has not entered into force yet and even if it had, the interpretation of certain provisions would be questionable". I am unpleasantly surprised by the fact that the well staffed and probably well paid legal service does not know that the Law entered into force as early as at the beginning of November and that even if there was really something disputable in the interpretation of its provisions, the Commissioner for Information would be competent for that, so I must remind them about that myself. Still, the Agency continued publishing lists with the same content, but it offered to the public new, equally interesting "legal" explanation which is now based on the fact that the Law did come into force after all, but the Agency did not violate it because its implementation should start on 1 January of the following year.
As I said, the Law on Personal Data Protection entered into force at the beginning of November and Article 63 envisages that it will be implemented as of 1 January. An easy question in connection with this is - for what purpose should these two months serve? Should public authorities use them to prepare themselves for proper implementation of the Law or for systematic and mass violation of the citizens' rights guaranteed by the law?
