Press Releases - Archive

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection invites all entities which retain or make copies of citizens' identity documents when citizens enter into their official buildings to stop such practice.

The citizens increasingly address the Commissioner because they are required to leave their identity cards with security officers when they enter many official buildings, both governmental and others. Many citizens are with a reason irritated by such requests or are in doubt about their justifiability and lawfulness.

The Commissioner of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection visited today the Association of Serbian Banks and talked with the Secretary General of the Association of Banks about the results and effects of the supervision over the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection which the Commissioner conducted in all commercial banks in Serbia.

The Commissioner sent back in March to all commercial banks (29) a warning about unlawful processing of personal data by requiring and retaining copies of clients' personal documents (passports, ID cards, health cards, etc...) even in those cases not expressly provided for by law. All the banks were given a deadline of 30 days to make a statement regarding this warning, and the Commissioner announced that it will adopt orders which would explicitly prohibit the unlawful processing of data.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and the Protector of Citizens are urging for more attention to be paid to privacy and elementary tact, and elements of human dignity as well, in reporting on the lives of citizens, even when it comes to public figures.

The manner in which the news has been presented to the public about the admission of the famous actor Dragan Nikolic to hospital is not only contrary to the obligation to maintain the confidentiality of health information, but also caused unnecessary and undue distress to his family, which contacted the Protector and the Commissioner.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection assesses that yesterday's announcement of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), which insinuates the existence of some kind of alleged omissions in the process of supervision of the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection which the Commissioner conducted in all commercial banks in Serbia, can only, as an effect, mislead the public.

This NBS's statement, regardless of the motive, objectively supports unlawful processing of citizens' personal data by commercial banks.