Press Releases

Marking Personal Data Protection Day 2026

“This right will not exist if we have nothing to protect – if the data becomes public,” said Commissioner Milan Marinović in his opening speech at the marking of Personal Data Protection Day, which took place today at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia. He further emphasized that, given those who incessantly hunt for our personal data, we must not allow ourselves to be caught off guard. It is not easy to protect this right these days, and despite extraordinary efforts, we need the help of all those who can and want to help – and above all, the citizens themselves.

The Commissioner emphasized that one of the possible solutions to these challenges is to strengthen regional and form global cooperation within the E-Association of Personal Data Protection Authorities. Finally, he pointed out that the challenges have become global and that our response must be global.

Representatives of foreign delegations, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, HE Marcel Peško, and the Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, Ms. Plamena Halačeva, emphasized that there are no major differences between the EU and here in terms of personal data protection. Therefore, we must fight together to protect our privacy.

Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković emphasized in her introductory speech that in the new era, we focus more on the development of natural intelligence rather than artificial intelligence, the fact that people keep forgetting that natural intelligence invented artificial intelligence, and finally, that we should not forget that we are human. She also referred to the work of the Supervision Sector, which carried out more than 1,280 supervision inspections last year. In addition, the institution continued to conduct training courses for both students of short study programs in the field of data protection and public authorities and other business entities. She also emphasized that the Office of the Commissioner has achieved intensive international cooperation in the past period with the aim of better protecting this human right.

Miroslav Panić, Advisor to the Commissioner, speaking about the intervention to amend the Law on Personal Data Protection, emphasized that the Office of the Commissioner has undertaken the preparation of a model of a new Law on the Protection of Personal Data, which is to be submitted to the Working Group as our own proposal. The two goals are to draft a new law, easier to implement in a nomotechnical sense, and the second goal is to regulate institutes not covered in the law so far, such as video surveillance, data processing in artificial intelligence systems, and biometric and genetic data.

Finally, we awarded recognition for special contributions to personal data protection in the Republic of Serbia to the following institutions: the OSCE Mission to Serbia, the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade, and the Directorate for Joint Affairs of the Republic Bodies.

The Deputy Commissioner invited all interested to familiarize themselves with the latest positions and opinions of the Commissioner in the latest publication, number XI, which can be downloaded in electronic form here.

All public authorities referred to in Article 3 of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance are obliged to submit Annual Reports for 2025 on actions taken to implement the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", No. 120/04, 54/07, 104/09, 36/10 and 105/21).

Public authorities can submit Annual Reports for 2025 from January 1 to January 31, 2026, via the Portal for Submitting Annual Reports of Public Authorities https://izvestaji.poverenik.rs/.

Commissioner’s Office

"By deleting Article 13 from the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, a snowball was released at the top of the mountain that turned into an avalanche. Furthermore, the position of the Administrative Court on the reimbursement of costs has also changed after 15 years, and since then, we have had a systemic abuse of the right. This makes it difficult for government bodies to function (around 4,000 local communities, 1,500 educational institutions, health centers, and others, bringing their functioning into question). At the same time, the functioning of the Commissioner, who acts on complaints from these bodies, has also been jeopardized," said Commissioner Milan Marinović on the occasion of the International Right to Know Day, held today at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia.

He further emphasized that not everything that could have been done has been done, and that what needs to be done is to amend the law and alter the position of the Administrative Court. The Commissioner appeals to the Government and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia to submit the text of the amendments to this law at the first sitting of the Assembly.

In the opening remarks, representatives of foreign delegations, Mr. Manuel Munteanu, Head of Information, Communication and Press of the EU Delegation to Serbia, and Ms. Augusta Featherston, Acting Head of the Democratization Department of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, also spoke, supporting again this year the Commissioner's institution in its efforts to safeguard and improve this right.

Finally, the Commissioner thanked all employees who contribute to ensuring that citizens do not feel the consequences of abuse of this right to such an extent.

This year, the Commissioner awarded the following bodies with recognition for their contribution to the affirmation of the public's right to know:

• In the category of republican bodies - the National Employment Service;
• In the category of provincial authorities - the Government of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina;
• In the category of local self-government authorities - the Municipality of Veliko Gradište;
• In the category of judicial authorities - the Basic Court in Majdanpek;
• In the category of other authorities - the Primary School "Desanka Maksimović" from Kosovska Kamenica;
• The Commissioner awarded a special recognition/letter of appreciation to the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).
• The main award, for a special contribution to the affirmation of the right to access information (statuette), was not awarded this year.

Acting Assistant Secretary General Slavoljupka Pavlović presented the latest publication, number XIV (in Serbian language only). This year's publication contains the Commissioner's positions and opinions on the events that marked the previous year, which reflected the importance of this right.

At the end of the meeting, Acting Assistant Secretary General Zlatko Petrović pointed out the importance of submitting Annual Reports of Public Authorities, because the effects of the implementation of this law can be seen from these reports.

The symbol of this year's event is a scale, which shows the importance of weighing interests in each individual case.

Due to the increasing number of citizens contacting the Office of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection with requests to exercise their rights regarding the personal data protection processed by Meta Platforms Inc. (which owns the social networks Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), the Commissioner issues the following release:

Meta Company Privacy Policy, which applies to users of Facebook and Instagram services in Serbia, can be accessed via the following link:

https://sr-rs.facebook.com/privacy/policy/?entry_point=facebook_page_footer

Meta Company's Privacy Policy contains information for users regarding the mechanisms through which they can effectively exercise their privacy rights. This includes a contact form in the section of Meta Company's Privacy Policy called "How to contact Meta Company if you have questions". Through these mechanisms, users in Serbia can directly exercise their privacy rights in their local language.

In accordance with local laws, individuals in Serbia are provided with various tools to access, manage, download, and delete their information that they share with Meta when interacting with their services. Namely, users can manage their information in the settings of the products they use and, if they wish, set their content to be public or private, or delete their content (e.g., posts, photos) from their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Users can also complete a “Privacy Checkup,” a process that guides its users through their important privacy and security settings on Facebook, helping them strengthen the security of their accounts and manage who can see what they share, as well as verify how their information is being used. Further information can be found at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/checkup/.

Meta has introduced the Privacy Center, a central point where users can better understand the company’s practices and make informed decisions about their privacy in a way that suits them. The Privacy Center includes various modules, including topics on sharing, collection, and use of content, as well as security and advertising, that are directly related to privacy issues or concerns about the relevant privacy and security controls that Meta offers its users. You can find more information about this at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/center/.

The Privacy Center was created to enable users to make privacy choices that are right for them and to explain how they can manage and control their privacy on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and other Meta products.
The aforementioned “Privacy Checkup” process and Meta’s “Privacy Center” are also available in Serbian.