Data protection breaches possible in certain ‘National Consultation’ questionnaire cases

“National Consultation” questionnaires could be used to create political databases by people who call on respondents to send the questionnaires back to them rather than to the government, Hungary’s data protection authority (NAIH) said on Tuesday.

The authority made the statement after independent lawmakers Bernadett Szel and Ákos Hadházy posted messages on social media in June, calling on people to post the questionnaires, which they insisted was “propaganda material”, to the Foundation for a Fair and Just Society.

When it comes to how the data is handled, the NAIH said the questionnaires only state the official purpose of the data processing.

But anyone using the material for other purposes must comply with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation, the authority added.

Unless the call for people to send the questionnaires to an address other than the government’s is accompanied by a proper statement pertaining to how the data is used and safeguarded, and unless the forms were sent anonymously, there would be an opportunity for the creation of a political database.

In response, Szél and Hadházy said that the campaign does not request or collect personal data. The data protection information published regarding the campaign is in line with EU data protection regulations, they said, and clearly states that the questionnaires will be destroyed immediately.

Szél and Hadházy insisted that

NAIH head Attila Péterfalvi and ruling Fidesz “have no strategy [against the campaign] and try to thwart it in any way possible.”

The anonymous questionnaires, they said, were inadequate to create political databases.

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