The National Security Agency has unlimited and permanent access to personal and other data contained in the electronic database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the agreement granting them such rights has been declared secret.
Because of this, MANS employees filed a lawsuit against these two state bodies, demanding that such an agreement be declared null and void.
The state, however, sees nothing objectionable in this, stating that their claim is unfounded.
In the lawsuit filed by MANS director Vanja Ćalović, Dejan Milovac and Veselin Bajčeta, it is written that the agreement of February 2014 gave ANB access to all records and registers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
They explain that with such an agreement ANB officials are enabled, at their own discretion, to access and download data and information about citizens, related to citizenship, identity cards, residence and keeping the residence register, voter list, unique identity number, personal name, registers, vehicle records...
The lawsuit also adds that the way in which ANB officials access citizens' personal data must not remain secret because it is a procedure that must provide a minimum of protection against abuse.
"Publishing the way in which ANB officials access the personal data of citizens in the performance of their duties cannot jeopardize the performance of the Agency's functions, because citizens must know how and when they might end up in a situation where ANB processes their personal data," the lawsuit states.
They state that the agreement is contrary to the Constitution and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and recall that the court declared invalid the agreement between the Police Administration and Mtel, which secretly and indefinitely enabled the police to collect personal data of citizens.
State representative Milenka Vukčević said at yesterday's trial that the MUP cannot submit the disputed Agreement to the court, because the ANB marked it with a level of secrecy, according to the Data Secrecy Act.
Lawyer Veselin Radulović pointed out that he does not see why the agreement should be secret, given that it should contain the procedure and conditions under which ANB accesses all MUP registers, which must certainly be known to citizens.
Judge Rašo Simović announced that at the next hearing, he will directly ask ANB to submit that agreement.
Citizens may find out if ANB used their data
Head of the Personal Data Protection Department in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zora Čizmović, stated yesterday that the Agreement was approved by the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data (AZLP) and the Directorate for Secret Data.
She added that the MUP is not competent to control whether the requested information was used for the purposes for which it was requested, but that only the AZLP can check that.
In order for the ANB to receive information from the MUP's computer, she said, their electronic request must contain an explanation of why they need the data...
"According to the Law on the Protection of Personal Data, the Ministry of Internal Affairs keeps files for 10 years on who accessed and viewed someone's personal data," she said.
She said that if a citizen is interested in whether ANB used their data, they can get that information from the MUP, if the Agency has not restricted such information.
Bonus video:
