On March 17, 2015 Personal Data Protection Inspector, Tamar Kaldani submitted annual report on the state of personal data protection in Georgia to non-governmental organizations and media representatives. The report examines the activities of the Personal Data Protection Inspector in 2014, as well as the current situation and challenges with regard to the protection of personal data.

2014 was a year of a huge progress in establishing high standards of personal data protection. It should be noted that since November 1, 2014 instead of 2016, all provisions of the Law on "Personal Data Protection" are fully applicable for the private sector; besides, inspector’s mandate has been expanded and it now covers the processing of personal data by law enforcement agencies for crime investigation and prevention purposes.

In 2014, number of applications from citizens, as well as from public and private organizations has been increased. The inspector’s office has reviewed the complaints of 30 citizens concerning unlawful processing of a special category of data, illegal disclosure of data, access to personal data by third parties, etc…

In 2014, up to 1000 consultations have been provided by the Inspector’s Office, the vast majority of the complaints submitted by the individuals concerned the disclosure/dissemination of the personal data without legal basis for employment purposes, video surveillance, direct marketing, trans-border data flows, database management, etc.

In 2014, one of the priorities of the Office was to raise public awareness and increasing the responsibility of the data controllers regarding the personal data protection issues. During the year, Office of the Inspector provided trainings for more than 1700 individuals.

13 organizations have been inspected during the past year (7 public and 6 private organizations). As a result of inspection, 3 public organizations have been fineddue to unlawful processing of personal data: The Office of the Prosecutor, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Georgia Department of Corrections.

A separate chapter of the report is dedicated to the issue of personal data processing by law enforcement agencies, according which the system of monitoring over the lawfulness of and covert investigative activities conducted by the law enforcement agencies has already developed at the legislative level and technically has been in the process of implementation. Preliminary and further control mechanism for data processing during the covert surveillance has been established, which will be launched after March 31, 2015;

“Our goal is to achieve the implementation of the European standards of personal data protection and to inform citizens about their rights. In 2014, we have been working on structural and functional strengthening of the Inspector’s Office, on the improvement of legislation, raising public awareness and increasing responsibility of data controllers" – said Tamar Kaldani.

2014 report on the state of personal data protection is public, open for all interested parties and can be reached on this link.