Bill on personal data protection adopted

Bill on personal data protection adopted

"Citizens have a growing need to protect their data due to increasing frequency of abuse – data such as personal identity number, ID number or bank account number, physical appearance and habits, biometric data, telephone number, IP address, passwords or most frequently visited addresses on the internet," the government said on its website, adding:

"The law significantly enhances the protection of citizens' personal data, both in the domestic legal system and in relation to the presentation of data to third countries. All personal data of Serbian citizens will thus be protected in the same way as in the EU member states."

The adoption of the new law "represents one of Serbia's obligations in the process of joining the European Union, but also stems from the fact that the text of the applicable law has not been significantly changed for nearly nine years."

Since the adoption of the current legal solutions to date, there has been an accelerated development of information technologies, which is why there is a need to additionally protect the rights of the persons to whom the data relate to, the government said.