One Year Since the Establishment of the Personal Data Protection Supervisory Authority in Georgia

2014-07-01 14:03:41

One year passed since the appointment of the Personal Data Protection Inspector of Georgia. Mrs. Tamar Kaldani summarized the results of one year work on the press-conference. Personal Data Protection Inspector with its Office supervises the implementation of the personal data protection legislation and the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms, in particular, the right to privacy in Georgia.

The mandate of the Inspector derives from the Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection, The Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (Convention 108), and its Additional Protocol on Supervisory Authorities and Trans-Border Data Flows.

Currently there are 14 staff members at the Office of the Inspector. During the one year work the flexible system for dealing with the citizens’ complaints was created in order to ensure the immediate and efficient response to the violations of the citizens’ rights.

The Inspector supervises the lawfulness of the data processing in the public bodies. At this time 16 Ministries and public institutions were inspected with the initiative of the Inspector and on the basis of citizens’ complaints; the information was withdrawn from more than 20 organizations; internal system and policy of 10 organizations was assessed. These activities resulted in the removal and correction of the data, termination of data processing and elimination of the discrepancies.

In light of the fact that the data protection is new for the Georgian legal system, the Office of the Inspector focused on implementation of data protection standards in public and private organizations. To this end, the Office held 595 consultations, trained 466 public servants and private sector representatives, including representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Office of the Personal Data Protection Inspector actively cooperates with the international organizations and similar institutions of the European countries. Since 2013 the Office represents Georgia in the Council of Europe Personal Data Protection Committee (T-PD) and ad hoc Committee on the modernization of the Convention 108 (CAHDATA). In June 2014 the representative of the Office was elected as a member of the Bureau of the T-PD. In April 2014 the Office of the Personal Data Protection Inspector of Georgia acceded to the Central and Eastern Europe Data Protection Authorities (CEEDPA) and in June 2014 – to the European Conference of Data Protection Authorities.

In order to improve the data protection standards in the country, thematic and sector specific guidelines and recommendations are being prepared. The first Recommendation of the Inspector concerning the Protection of Personal Data in Labor Relations is available on the web-site: www.personaldata.ge

“Personal Data Protection is one of the main challenges of the modern world. It is important to strike the balance between the data protection and such legitimate interests as the freedom of information, public safety and security, etc. Of course it is impossible to establish high standards of data protection within one year. Development of the human rights oriented system requires joint efforts of public and private organisations. The involvement of the citizens is also very important for the protection of their right to privacy and legitimacy of collecting and processing of their personal data” – said the Personal Data Protection Inspector of Georgia, Mrs. Tamar Kaldani.