News

SHARE has brought Google to Serbia

Any requests and objections which the citizens of Serbia may have regarding their personal data processed by Google, can now be resolved through the company’s representative in Serbia. Google, as one of the first tech-giants complying with the new Serbian law, wrote a letter to the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, i.e. Serbia’s Data Protection Authority, on May 21st, 2020, stating that their representatives would be “BDK Advokati” from Belgrade.

YouTube, Chrome, Android, Gmail, maps and many other digital products without which the internet is unimaginable, are an important segment of the industry which entirely relies on processing personal data. With a significant delay and numerous difficulties, states have begun bringing some order in this field, which directly interferes with basic human rights. The European Union has set this standard by adopting the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), while the new Law on Personal Data Protection in Serbia, in application since August 2019, followed this model too.

Although they have been operating in Serbia for a long time, global tech-corporations observe most developing countries as territories for an unregulated exploitation of citizens’ data. At the end of May 2019, three months before the application of the new Law on Personal Data Protection, SHARE Foundation informed 20 biggest tech companies from around the world about their obligations towards the citizens of Serbia whose data is being processed.

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=ShareConference&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1131916342054019072&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sharefoundation.info%2Fen%2Fshare-has-brought-google-to-serbia%2F&sessionId=33647fd76dc24c7392e0c0a568362c3140ed1cef&siteScreenName=ShareConference&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px

Twitter responded to us by saying that they were working on it. A global platform for booking airline tickets, eSky, contacted us and appointed their representative in Serbia. In December 2019, we filed misdemeanor charges to the Commissioner.

Related content

Round two of the battle against mass biometric surveillance

The controversial Draft Law on Internal Affairs was withdrawn from the procedure on Monday, December 26. The decision to withdraw followed two sessions of the public discussion, which was initially open for three weeks and then extended at the request of civic organisations. At the same time, the Government announced “broad consultations” in further work on the […]

The Pegasus Project: what happened and how to protect yourself

More than 180 journalists were discovered in a database of phone numbers designated for potential espionage, thanks to a leak of documents given to the Forbidden Stories journalistic collective and Amnesty International. The choice of targets for surveillance was made by clients of the Israeli company NSO Group, which specialises in the production of spyware that it sells […]

A Password Pandemic. How did a COVID-19 password end up online?

The username and password to access the Covid – 19 Information System were publicly available on a health institution’s web page for eight days. This period of time was long enough for the page to be indexed by Google and, although invisible on the web page, it was accessible through a simple search. After discovering the matter […]