The President of the Republic Mr. Nicos Anastasiades received today, at the Presidential Palace, the annual report of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection, Mrs. Irene Loizidou Nicolaidou for 2020.
Handing over the report, the Commissioner said that "the year 2020 was a new challenge for us, because we had to deal with the issues of the pandemic that required the collection of a large amount of personal data. Our role during this period was very important because we were and still are called upon to examine and assure that all this processing is done within the limits of legality, always, of course, with a perfect balance between the protection of privacy, but at the same time the protection of public health".
Receiving the report, the President of the Republic said that both the Commissioner and her colleagues "with rigour, committed to the provisions of the law, did not fail to have such cooperation that allowed us to implement unprecedented policies that certainly affect both privacy and more generally (policies) related to the personal data of citizens.
The whole management, the whole cooperation was done without compromising rights and in a way that ensured what the legislation provides."
In addition, Mrs. Loizidou Nicolaidou delivered to the President of the Republic the first annual report of the Information Commissioner, who is the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection, who has been in office for a year.
As the Commissioner said, "essentially, any of us, whether a natural or legal person, is entitled to get information from the public administration by controlling it. It is very important legislation, it is a tool of accountability and transparency," she added.
Receiving the report, the President said that "despite the fact that it is a newly established institution, it can be seen from the actions, from the whole implementation of the provisions of the law, that it is still a stage of ensuring the rights of citizens through the obligation of the state to be accountable for matters relating to personal data.
These are the steps we are taking towards modernizing the state and I want to hope that by the end of my term of office, always in cooperation with the political forces, we will achieve a number of other reforms that will be of benefit to the citizens and the future Government will have an easier task either in terms of personal data or in terms of fighting corruption or in terms of transparency and protection of witnesses or in terms of reforming the judiciary or in terms of the Local Government of the Public Service - which will also be credited to the political forces and not to the Government of the day."
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
