VIDEO SURVEILLANCE AND FINGERPRINTING IN THE ELECTORAL PROCESS UNACCEPTABLE

SARAJEVO, MAY 14 /SRNA/ - The Personal Data Protection Agency of BiH considers the introduction of video surveillance at polling stations and the processing of voters’ biometric fingerprint data for the purpose of detecting and preventing violations of the voting process to be unacceptable.

The Agency told SRNA that, under the current legal regulations, video surveillance represents a technical protection measure whose application is justified solely for personal and property security, and only if that purpose cannot be achieved through other, less intrusive measures. "Fingerprint data are biometric data and fall into a special category of data whose processing is prohibited under the Law on Personal Data Protection, except in exceptional circumstances," the Agency stated. It says that this raises the question of the processing of such data in the electoral process and what legitimate objective is to be achieved by intruding on voters' privacy to this extent. The Agency says that such processing would not be in line with the principles of fairness and lawfulness, even if a formal legal basis existed. The Agency also points out that the new Law on Personal Data Protection of BiH, harmonized with the General Data Protection Regulation, prohibits the processing of personal data, including biometric data, for the purpose of uniquely identifying a person. "The Central Election Commission of BiH is obliged to examine whether the interests of data subjects outweigh the processing of biometric data," the Personal Data Protection Agency of BiH said. The Agency reminds that, in the previous period, it had submitted two opinions to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH regarding proposed amendments to the Election Law of BiH, which concerned the introduction of new technologies into the electoral process - video surveillance at polling stations, the processing of biometric fingerprint data, and the optical scanning of ballot papers. The Agency added that its opinions raised objections regarding inappropriate references to the law, ensuring public access to the voter list through publication on the website of the Central Election Commission of BiH, prescribing the processing of personal data through bylaws, voter identity verification through biometrics, the failure to prescribe specific protection mechanisms for special categories of personal data, the method of electronic voter identification, and imposing obligations in the Election Law relating to other independent bodies. The Agency stated that, under the Law on Personal Data Protection, the Central Election Commission of BiH is the controller and is therefore obliged to apply all measures prescribed by the Law, including ensuring security and technical measures, as well as conducting a risk assessment for the stated processing of personal data.