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Sarajevo, (Fena) – The director of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragoljub Reljić, said at a press conference on the occasion of International Data Protection Day that personal data protection has become an important issue in recent years.
He added that there are many reasons for this, and he mentioned two – one is the process of digitalization, and the other is the process of artificial intelligence.
– Now with digitalization, you can be subject to actions and violations of protection and intrusions into personal data from anywhere on this planet. The importance of personal data protection has become so great – said Reljić.
He stated that last year the Council of Europe Convention on Artificial Intelligence and the European Union Regulation on Artificial Intelligence was adopted.
– These are the two acts with which we will have to harmonize our law and legal system in the coming period. Our legal system, or our law that regulates this area, is from 2006 – said Reljić.
For this reason, it was necessary to start the process of drafting a new law.
He stated that this is one of the very important laws on the European path, but for him, it is even more important that with this law “we raise the level of personal data protection of our citizens, or all persons whose data are processed in BiH”.
– This is, in my opinion, very important – said Reljić, and mentioned some of the innovations in the Draft Law on Personal Data Protection, which is currently in parliamentary procedure.
– The principle of transparency is introduced. Based on this principle of transparency, we will have the obligation, all our data controllers will have the obligation to have privacy policies and cookie policies, where you will see just by clicking on a certain page whether someone respects this law. In this case, the agency inspectors will not even have to visit someone, it is enough just to enter the website to see if it has an adequate privacy policy, i.e. a cookie policy – Reljić explained.
He stated that the new law also regulates the security of processing.
– We have so-called technical integrated data protection. Here, the right to object to the controller is particularly emphasized. Apart from the Agency, where you could so far file a complaint, you will have the possibility to get detailed information, file a complaint with the controller – explained Reljić.
He also stated that the right to be forgotten is introduced, the so-called right to erasure, which he said is “a significant right”.
– When you go to internet pages and type a name, some information from 20 years ago appears that has never been deleted, even though the purpose of the processing has long ceased, the reason why some data processing is carried out. Next, significant for citizens, it is mandatory to have a representative from these companies that process data via the internet and use our data. For example, Google, Meta, Amazon, they will now have to have a representative for BiH – said Reljić.
One of the innovations is that the penal policy is significantly tightened. Reljić also stated that the law gives the Agency new and extensive powers.
– The Agency for the Protection of Personal Data, according to this law, truly becomes an independent supervisory authority such as in Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, and Austria, gaining significant powers. At the same time, I appeal that it is necessary to support the Agency in implementing this law – said Reljić. (30.01.)