THE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE OF GEORGIA UNLAWFULLY DISCLOSED PERSONAL DATA OF A PERSON

Date: 26 Mar 2020

On January 21, 2020, at the session of the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee in the Parliament of Georgia where the Public Defender presented a special report, Thea Tsulukiani, the Minister of Justice publicly showed a video recorded in the cell of a convict in the penitentiary institution, which was subsequently posted on the official Facebook page of the Special Penitentiary Service. The disseminated video-recording also shows that the recording took place on April 19, 2019, and it was released on January 21, 2020. It is noteworthy that the Committee meeting was broadcasted through the Parliament's website, media and social media.

On January 22, 2020, GYLA applied to the State Inspector Service with the request to study and respond to this fact. The proceeding of the case revealed that through a public hearing at the Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee of the Parliament and the social networking site and the Special Penitentiary Service through the publication of the official website and social networking site, as well as delivering to broadcasting companies and news agencies, processed the personal data of the persons recorded on the video recordings without the prescribed grounds provided by law. Thus, these administrative bodies were found to be offenders and imposed administrative sanctions. The Special Penitentiary Service and the Ministry were also mandated to delete or depersonalize video recordings containing personal data on official social network pages and official websites that were deemed to be processed in violation of the law.