Press Releases - Archive

In his letter sent to Ms Zagorka Dolovac, Republic Public Prosecutor, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection Rodoljub Sabic warned that the practice used by certain public prosecutor's offices, which demanded of landline and mobile telephony and Internet providers to provide communication listings and disclose other retained data without a relevant prior court decision, was unlawful and violated and jeopardised the constitutional guarantees of human rights.

The Commissioner pointed out that Article 41 of the Serbian constitution explicitly guarantees confidentiality of communication and provides that any derogation from this guarantee is allowed only on the basis of a court decision and this guarantee also includes the so-called retained data.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection once again publicly warns legal entities and sole traders that provide private security services that, by retaining the identity documents of visitors who enter the buildings they secure, they perform inadmissible personal data processing and violate the Law on Personal Data Protection.

The fact that someone is authorised and required to verify a person's identity by examining his or her identity document never (except in cases explicitly specified by the law) translates to an authority to retain such documents. The Law on Private Security does not provide the basis for retention of personal documents, which means that their retention constitutes inadmissible processing of personal data for purposes other than those originally intended. Also, retention of documents (including photocopying) certainly increases the risk of potential abuse.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection said that harmonisation of the text of the General Data Protection Regulation the European Parliament and the EU Council is also of relevance for Serbia and requires attention of the competent authorities and their proper response.

In that regard, Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic said:

In connection with the statement given by Dr. Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, Director of the Clinic for Psychiatric Diseases "Dr. Laza Lazarevic", who said "this Clinic has not violated the law" when processing personal data, more specifically the medical and psychiatric documentation of citizen A.K., which were subsequently disclosed in a TV programme, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection would like to draw the public's attention to the following, without any intention to engage in a debate with the Director: