The Office for the Protection of Personal Data shall inform you how it is involved in the planning and implementation of measures relating to the control of persons who have been quarantined by the Police of the Czech Republic.

At the beginning of February this year, the Office informed that it had begun to examine the practice of notifying persons who had been quarantined to the Czech police on the basis of several complaints. The inspection has not yet been completed.

In the context of this inspection, the Office verifies not only the notification practice for persons ordered to be quarantined, but also the circumstances in which the Czech Republic police continued to store and use this data. In addition to the authorisation of the Police of the Czech Republic to process personal data of persons, it is also ascertained whether and how personal data are used (that is, whether such persons are controlled and in what context), what are the elements of personal data security (internal documentation, verification of facts), how is controlled access to these data, verification of inconsistent alerts to people by the Regional Hygienic Stations and how this situation has been resolved (existence of records of processing activities).

However, the Office shall carry out the inspection on the basis of a report in Deník N , which informed in mid-January this year that regional health stations and the Czech Social Security Administration were instructed to send information on quarantined persons to the police presidium without their knowledge. In the same case, the Office also received a complaint on 2nd February 2021 and a letter of 18th February 2021 stating that the case was a request for information identified by the Office.

At the beginning of February 2021, the Office sent a request for an opinion to the Police of the Czech Republic. 

Subsequently, it received a statement and invited the police of the Czech Republic to complete it, on the basis of its application, the Office also received statements from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Czech Social Security Administration.

Following the assessment of the documents and declarations received, the Office initiated an inspection on 9th March and on 23rd March ordered a local investigation of the Police of the Czech Republic, all subsequent steps will be based on information provided by the Police of the Czech Republic in the context of the local investigation.

In this context, the Office considers it necessary to underline that the inspection does not in any way replace the administrator’s procedure or the performance of the functions to be carried out on an ongoing basis. It is the legal duty of ministries and other authorities to prepare and set up the processing of data in such a way that the collection of data from individuals, storage and further processing are carried out in an appropriate manner and only for the time necessary.

At the latest at the time of application and application of the measures, State authorities are obliged to explain to citizens the parameters of the entire processing of data, including what will happen to their personal data, who will participate in the measurements and for how long the data will be stored. It is therefore important that ministries develop methodological activities in this area and respond to requests and questions from the public.

Public authorities shall have the possibility at any time during the preparation, application and implementation of measures to apply to the Office for consultation. 

However, this has not yet happened with regard to the processing of personal data of persons who have been placed in quarantine. The inspection by ÚOOÚ and its result, which only approves the results or detects errors and leads to repair, cannot replace the activity required by law in the preparation of the measures, nor the methodology of competent ministries to assist administrators in behaving in accordance with the measures issued.

SOURCE: AUTORITA’ PER LA PROTEZIONE DEI DATI DLLA REPUBBLICA CECA