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The annual reports of state agencies are usually documents full of tables, official language and neutral statements, and they pass through state committees without much attention. However, the Office for Personal Data Protection, which plays a key role in protecting our privacy, decided this year to abandon this template. He sent a document to Parliament, the conclusions of which barely bear any resemblance to the official language. In it, he openly stated that he was in danger of collapse.
The Office for Personal Data Protection was established in 2002 as part of the harmonization of our country’s laws with European ones. In 2023, it managed about 2 million euros and employed 43 people. Since 2020, the Commission is headed by Vice President Anna Vitteková, who previously served as a Smer MP. Soňa Pötheová was the chairperson of the office until 2020, but the parliament fired her because of her communications with Marian Kočner. Her deputy Vitteková, who was previously a Smer member, took over the management. She has been the deputy director of the office since 2016.
Setbacks and Turnover
Every year, the body is obliged to submit an annual report to the members of Parliament on the state of personal data protection, reporting, among other things, on how it is managed, how many inspections it has completed, which cases it has handled and what projects it is involved in.
However, he added something else to the 2023 report, which was submitted to Parliament in mid-May. There is also a chapter at the end called “Summary”, which was not in previous reports. In it, the office decided to directly tell its current situation.
“The current state or function of the office can be described (without euphemism) as ‘before collapse,’ ” the office writes at the beginning of its final chapter. The reasons are insufficient staff, little funding, and too many tasks.
“However, a rigid number of positions available in the office, demotivation (frustration) and subsequent turnover among (sometimes critical) employees, and a lack of public interest in job opportunities in the office have long been part of the job landscape of the office. This process can be likened to the ‘wiggly frog syndrome,'” the office complained.
At the same time, he pointed out that the private sector and other offices are recruiting qualified employees at the expense of the office, while these people gain experience working in the Office of Personal Data Protection. In addition, the new reinforcements have not shown any interest in working in the agency.
They lost their office
It is another matter that the offices of the headquarters, which, according to the management, must be moved out by the end of this year, are replaced by another state agency. “During the monitoring period, the location of the office itself became a relevant factor of instability. The unilateral non-renewal of the lease by the lessor, a private entity, was the result of a new agreement between it and another state administrative agency, signed without the knowledge of the office, and therefore the office must be relocated to other premises by the end of 2024,” ÚOOU noted.
Today, the office is located at Hraničná 12 in Bratislava, and although the report does not directly name the second state organization that replaced the office, the Agricultural Payment Agency, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture, is also located in the same building.
We also asked questions to the office itself. We wanted to know why he decided to communicate his situation in such a non-standard way. The press department told us that everything they wanted to say was in the report and they would not comment further.
What threats does lack of money bring?
The right to privacy is one of the fundamental human rights. Ivan Makatura, CEO of the Cybersecurity Capability and Certification Centre, explained that the role of the Personal Data Protection Office is to ensure that this right is preserved and that personal data is not misused.
He noted that if the office is not adequately staffed and funded, it could lead to complications.
“If the office does not have sufficient staff, real supervision in terms of personal data protection and controls on operators and intermediaries may be problematic. This could lead to circumvention of applicable laws,” the expert said, adding that a lack of resources by the office could lead to extensions of statutory deadlines for filing documents.
Responding to new threats could also be an issue. “Technology and methods of personal data processing are constantly evolving. The office needs to have adequate funding and staffing to be able to respond to new threats and challenges in the field of personal data protection, for example through continuous amendments to legislation,” Makatura said, adding that funding and staffing are key to effective personal data protection.
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