Press Releases

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection informs the public that he has conducted extraordinary inspection supervision of the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection ("Official Gazette of the RS", No. 87/2018) by the Data Controller of the City Administration of the City of Belgrade due to processing of personal data of persons up to 19 years of age, employees and part-time hired employees in primary and secondary schools on the territory of Belgrade for the purpose of giving out free vouchers, on November 7, 2022.

On November 7, 2022, the City Administration of the City of Belgrade, Secretariat for Education and Children's Welfare, sent a letter to the directors of preschool institutions and primary and secondary schools informing them that they only need to submit data on the number of children, students, employees, and part-time hired employees in those institutions, exclusively in the form of signed and certified statements of directors guaranteeing data reliability, no later than November 9, 2022, by 3 p.m., through the Secretariat's clerk office.

After the inspection, the Commissioner's authorized persons determined that in this particular case, the City Administration of the City of Belgrade, the Secretariat for Education and Children's Welfare, does not process the personal data of persons up to 19 years of age, nor employees and part-time hired employees in preschool institutions, elementary and secondary schools on the territory of Belgrade.

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection informs the public that he has initiated extraordinary inspection supervision on the implementation of the Law on Personal Data Protection; ("Official Gazette of RS", No. 87/2018) by the Data Controller, the City Administration of the City of Belgrade, due to the personal data processing of persons up to 19 years of age, employees and persons engaged in work in primary and secondary schools in the territory of Belgrade, for the purpose of giving out free vouchers.

On this occasion, the Commissioner points out that every preschool, primary and secondary school is legally obliged to have a designated data protection officer so that if a parent or guardian needs to be informed in more detail about the personal data processing of a minor regarding the giving out of free vouchers, they can address that officer.

The commissioner points out that he will promptly inform the public about everything after the extraordinary inspection.

Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unković and Acting Assistant Secretary General of the Commissioner's Service, Marko Antić, are participating in the 44th Global Privacy Assembly (GPA), which will be held from October 25 to 28, 2022 in Istanbul. The main theme of the assembly is "A question of balance: privacy in an era of rapid technological progress". The assembly is attended by a vast number of speakers from around the world, including representatives of the public and private sectors, the academic community, and non-governmental organizations.

Due to the citizens' and media interests in the opinion and attitude of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection regarding the processing of personal data that is about to be carried out as part of the census starting on October 1 this year, the Commissioner, within the point of view of his scope regarding the application of the Law on the protection of personal data, indicates that the implementation of the census in 2022 is regulated by the Law on the Census of Population, Households, and Dwellings and that this law sets the legal basis for personal data processing of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia for the purpose of producing and publishing official data statistics.

We remind you that, in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Official Statistics, official statistics means the provision of representative data and information on mass economic, demographic and social phenomena, and for the needs of the users of such data and information, which may be business entities and their associations, public authorities, bodies of autonomous provinces, bodies of local self-government units, cultural, educational and scientific institutions, as well as the general public, and that the Statistics Office of the Republic of Serbia is a state authority whose jurisdiction is determined by the Law on Ministries and refers to the performance of tasks related to the organization and implementation of statistical research, collection, processing, statistical analysis and publication of statistical data.

In this context, the personal data processing as part of the 2022 census of population, households, and dwellings is carried out in the public interest and represents a legal obligation of the Statistical Office of the RS, and for the Law on the Census of Population, Households, and Dwellings in 2022, the law itself is harmonized with the Law on personal data protection.

Bearing in mind the above, at the moment there are no current indications that the personal data processing within the upcoming population, household, and dwelling census is to be in conflict with the Law on Personal Data Protection. However, since irregularities related to personal data processing can never be completely ruled out in advance, we instruct all interested parties to contact the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, as the data handler, to obtain information about the census, and we invite all subjects who, after receiving the information, believe that the personal data processing is carried out contrary to the provisions of the Law on the Personal Data Protection, to notify the Commissioner thereof.

Commissioner Milan Marinović and Senior Public Prosecutor in Belgrade Nenad Stefanović held a meeting today. On that occasion, the Commissioner informed prosecutor Stefanović about the serious abuse of the right to access information of public importance that this institution is facing these days. The aforementioned abuse can threaten the efficient operation of the Commissioner's Office and cause serious damage to the state budget, the Commissioner emphasized.

Prosecutor Stefanović pointed out that the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office he is in charge of is aware of the importance of the right to access information of public importance and the requisite increasing transparency in the work of the authorities. In order to increase the transparency of their work, as Stefanović emphasizes, since the establishment of the Public Relations Service, they have published 168 public announcements and 248 answers to media questions, which significantly reduced the number of requests for access to information of public importance.

The Commissioner praised this action of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office.

Marinović and Stefanović agreed to continue cooperation with coordinated action.