AZLP advice: The identity number cannot be published even partially

The publication of part of the personal identification number (JMBG) of entrepreneurs in state aid registers that are publicly available on the website of the Agency for the Protection of Competition is not in accordance with the Law on the Protection of Personal Data, the Council of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data (AZLP) determined.

Within its competences, the Agency, among other things, maintains state aid registers.

Providers of state aid enter data on the granted state aid, while the Agency administers the registers, which, in case the beneficiary of state aid is an entrepreneur, publishes his JMBG.

In the request it sent to AZLP, the Agency asked for an opinion on whether it is acting correctly if it publishes the first seven digits and marks the last six digits with an "X" when announcing the JMBG of the entrepreneur.

Regarding this request, the AZLP Council took as reference the Law on State Aid Control, the Law on Protection of Competition, the Law on the Central Population Register and the Law on Business Companies.

The AZLP Council appreciates that the Agency is obliged to adequately protect personal data in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act.

"Taking into account that the content of state aid registers is of a public nature, we believe that third parties should only have access to data on the name of the entrepreneur, while data on the registration number, which is also the PIB (tax identification number) of this taxpayer, which is publishes partially and indicates the date of birth of this person is not necessary to achieve the purpose and it is necessary to protect him, i.e. to anonymize him completely," states the opinion signed by the President of the Council, Sreten Radonjić.

The same, it is added, could be available in full to interested parties through a specific procedure, not through public registers.