The trial against the Polish Post for envelope elections begins
In May 2020, Poczta Polska took over the given services and female citizens from PESEL registers through election elections. Local governments and the Ministry of Labor for data offer. While the legal possibility was refused, the ministry provided the data – without grounds.
the team of the Panoptykon Wojciech Klicki Foundation sued Poczta Polska for processing his data. His trial will begin with us.
Nighttime e-mail from the Polish Post
The presidential elections in 2020 were to be held by correspondence due to the pandemic. The relevant act of the Sejm on April 6, but then it was in the Senate for a month. President Andrzej Du will not elect the elections until May 8, two days before the planned ones.
The lack of a law – that is, a legal basis – did not, however, prevent the government from preparing for veterinary medicine.
In April, Poczta Polska sent e-mails to local governments from the source of “data from the census of voters”, incl. PESEL numbers. The e-mails were not signed with the full name. The local government column refused the data, and the case was resolved by notifying the prosecutor’s office in an attempt to extort data.
“At night, at 01:40, about the delivery of data to the mailbox, about the e-mail secretariat 2020 – delivery of the data.” It was signed “Poczta Polska”, without the signature of the person who would endorse it “, said Marcin Skonieczka, the mayor of the Płużnica commune two years ago.
“The first time I deal with elections, the government, which should uphold the law, forces local governments to help against the law” – a local government official.
What local governments did not do, the ministry of digitization did.
The local government cannot, the minister helps
On April 22, 2020, the contemporary Minister of Digitization, Marek Zagórski, made the databases of PESEL available to Poczta Polska. They included one:
- PESEL number,
- first name and last name
- and in the paragraph on what data the person has, in the PESEL watch – the current address for permanent residence, the last address for permanent residence, as well as the address for temporary residence.
The data was written on and with a small inscription The Digitization Center handed over the Polish person representing the Post Office after verifying its identity. Password for data on plate arrays
Minister Zagórski explained that he was asked by Poczta Polska for the data, the so-called special covid act. Now it is on this law that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki instructed Poland to organize elections in the elections in 2020 (which are held late 2020).
The Ombudsman submitted a motion by the minister. The Commissioner for Human Rights withdrew that the covid act did not give the Poczta Polska company a CD with the basis for management. Why?
The legislator establishes the administration to correct – within two days from the date of providing data by the administration from the administration – PESEL, if the data for the purposes of administration
It’s just that at that time Poczta Polska was not organized yet without any elections, it entered all elections and in the village only on May 9, that is 17 days after the minister entered the data.
A complaint by the Commissioner for Human Rights within the jurisdiction of the Provincial Administrative Court. He stated that the Minister of Digitization did not have PESEL data. The judgment is not final.
The actions of Minister Zagórski were also criticized by the actions of the Parliamentary Analysis Bureau that the information about the content was unacceptable. The case also dealt with the European Data Protection Board. Its conclusions were as follows: disclosure of personal data – at that time making it available – always establishing the basis for regulation.
Where the government has an institute privacy
“The post office not only obtained data in a controversial way – because without a legal basis. We also did that, in a way that offends the security rules: the information to be provided by PESEL, we had to purchase on a CD, local governments helped us to help us with an unsecured .txt file. The post office did not provide maintenance services and did not inform about contacting personal data – writes Panoptykon Foundation.
In July 2020, Wojciech Klicki, a member of the fund’s team, sued the Post Office for processing personal data. The first hearing will be held on September 27.
“If it was believed that Poczta Polska broke the law, it will order the data to be recorded illegally or verify whether it has already done so (the company says in its response to the lawsuit).
The favorable value will also be a clear signal to users that they are taking a serious rule of law. There will also be a door to undermine other government which, under the pretext of fighting the pandemic, has compromised the institute’s privacy (e.g. by ordering a telecommunications operator to disclose the location of quarantined people) “
– writes on their website Panoptykonu.