Anna Michel Asimakopoulou is primarily responsible for the scandal involving the leak of personal data of refugees, according to the decision of the Personal Data Protection Authority.
The Personal Data Protection Authority imposes a fine of €40,000 for the illegal processing of citizens' personal data, while also imposing a fine of €400,000 on the Ministry of Interior.
Concerning New Democracy and Mr. Theodoropoulos, the Authority postponed issuing a decision, as the latter, after the hearing and the submission of memoranda, provided a sworn statement regarding the way he was entered into the electoral rolls, a newer critical element, whose content reveals the need for further investigation of the claims made there.
According to the decision, the file in question was created on June 8, 2023 for internal use at the Ministry of the Interior in relation to a purpose concerning the electoral process.
As the Authority concludes, «the leak of this specific file occurred between 8 and 23 June 2023, as it was proven that on 23 June 2023 the file was transmitted to the then Secretary of State for Diaspora of New Democracy, Nikos Theodoropoulos, from a sender whose identity and status have not been determined to date, in order, according to his claims, to use it for the analysis of the election results».
On January 20, 2024, the file in question, according to the APDPH, was sent to Ms. Asimakopoulou by Mr. Theodoropoulos. “Ms. Asimakopoulou then processed the file originating from the Ministry of Interior with the aim of sending an e-mail to all the voters contained in it. Ms. Asimakopoulou’s e-mail did not include the information required by Article 14 of the GDPR to inform its recipients , in particular about the source of their personal data,” it states.
As for the Ministry of the Interior, «the leak of a file intended exclusively for internal use constitutes an incident of breach of confidentiality of personal data and thus a violation of personal data» it states categorically. «During the inspection carried out by the Authority at the Ministry of the Interior, deficiencies were found in the procedures and the applied data protection policies, shortcomings in the investigation of the incident as well as undocumented announcements of the circumstances of the incident. Finally, deficiencies and inaccuracies were identified in the content of the relevant activity logs» it adds.
As for Ms. Asimakopoulou, the Authority found that the collection of personal data of expatriate voters, including electronic communication details, and their use to send a political communication message was “in violation of the fundamental principle of legality, objectivity and transparency of processing, as it was in breach of a series of provisions of electoral legislation and furthermore could not be reasonably expected for the data subjects (voters abroad)”».
As referred to in the decision «For the violations of articles 5 paragraph 1 a’ in combination with article 6 paragraph 1 and article 14 of the GDPR, as detailed in chapter B1 of the present reasoning, i) imposes, pursuant to article 58 paragraph 2 point θ’ GDPR on Anna Michel Asimakopoulou, as data controller, a monetary fine of forty thousand (40.000) euros, and ii) issues an order, pursuant to article 58 paragraph 2 subpoint ζ’ of the GDPR on Anna Michel Asimakopoulou, as data controller, to delete all data of overseas voters».
«For violations of articles 5 par. 1 sub. στ and 32 of the GDPR, article 25 par. 1, article 33 par. 3,4,5 of the GDPR, as well as article 30 of the GDPR, as detailed in chapter B4 of the present memorandum, i) imposes pursuant to’ article 58 par. 2 point θ ’ GDPR on the Ministry of Interior, as data controller, a monetary fine of four hundred thousand (400,000) euros, and ii) issues an order, pursuant to’ article 58 par. 2 point δ ’ GDPR, on the Ministry of Interior».
Source of information: documentonews.gr
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