Principles of personal data protection

1. Everyone who asks for your personal data is obliged to have your consent or has to be authorized by law (you are entitled to know by which)

2. When signing a document, read it with care. Only on the basis of conditions given in the document, signed and approved by you, your personal data may be used further.

3. The consent with provision of personal data has to be free and informed; it should be given only if you have obtained all necessary information on the processing of your personal data; therefore, resist to any pressure and examine all unclear in the document you are signing, mainly to whom, why and for which period are you providing your personal data. Provide your personal data only if you feel that your privacy is secured and don’t do it in situation when it could be heard by somebody unauthorized.

4. You have the right to know what personal data about you are collected by the given entity. If you detect that the stored personal data are false or inconsistent, you have the right to require in particular their blocking, correction, completing or liquidation.

5. Your personal data may be stored only for a period of time necessary for the fulfilment of the specified purpose of their processing.

6. It is prohibited to produce copies of your personal identity documents (identity card, travel document) by any means without your consent. Present the documents only for inspection and verification or alternatively for the recording of the necessary data (if there exists a legal ground).

7. or identity checks at the entrance of buildings, it is not allowed to require your birth number. Your name and surname, eventually the number of your identity card (or service card in the case of entering on duty) are fully sufficient.

8. If you saved your personal data to certain recording device (e.g. to hard disk), delete it carefully by specific software means before eventual sale. Common reinstall or simple delete is not sufficient guarantee for liquidation of saved data.

9. Be careful when sending your personal documents by means of electronic communications. Keep in mind that the communication channels could be intercepted by unauthorized person. However, if you must use such a way of communication, use standard means for encryption or certification (SSL protocols, certificate signature or particular security passwords) as much as possible.

10. You shall be always warned, in most cases at least by a pictograph on the wall that you are moving in the area with video surveillance system. Video surveillance is non-permissible in areas designated for purely intimate activities (e.g. toilets, bathrooms, premises reserved for changing etc.)

At the end of 2004, the Office for Personal Data Protection published an pdf File information leaflet on the subject of personal data protection and privacy. The leaflet was distributed to schools and municipal and public authorities.

By way of the leaflet, the Office presented as set of information that should reveal mainly to the citizens the issue of personal data protection in relation to their rights.

The leaflet has been prepared on the basis of the citizens’ frequently asked questions, however, has taken into account also the need to warn of risks endangering their privacy.

The Office has actually placed this reference material on its website at the citizens’ disposal.