On the 5th of July 2019, the National Supervisory Authority finalised an investigation into controller LEGAL COMPANY & TAX HUB SRL and found that the controller infringed the provisions of Article 32 (1) and (2) of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).
The data controller, LEGAL COMPANY & TAX HUB SRL, was sanctioned to a fine of 14173.50 lei, the equivalent of 3,000 Euros.
The sanction was issued to the data controller, because it has not implemented adequate technical and organisational measures in order to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk of accidental or unlawful processing.
This led to unauthorized disclosure of and unauthorized access to the personal data of persons who performed transactions received by the avocatoo.ro website (name, surname, mailing address, email, phone, job, details of transactions made), publicly accessible documents, between 10 December 2018 and 1 February 2019.
The National Supervisory Authority imposed the sanction following an intimation received on the 10th of December 2018 indicating that a set of files on the details of the transactions received by the avocatoo.ro website, which contained the name, surname, mailing address, email, telephone, job and details of transactions made, was publicly accessible through two links.
We underline that pursuant to Article 5.1 (f) GDPR, the data controller had the obligation to process personal data in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures (“integrity and confidentiality”).
Also, the General Data Protection Regulation provides under Article 32 that: “1. Taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing as well as the risk of varying likelihood and severity for the rights and freedoms of natural persons, the controller and the processor shall implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk, including inter alia as appropriate:
a) the pseudonymisation and encryption of personal data;
b) the ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of processing systems and services;
c) the ability to restore the availability and access to personal data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident;
d) a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of technical and organisational measures for ensuring the security of the processing.
2. In assessing the appropriate level of security account shall be taken in particular of the risks that are presented by processing, in particular from accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.”
Read the full press release in Romanian here
For further information, please contact the Romanian Supervisory Authority: anspdcp@dataprotection.ro