A question on “Leakage of personal data of emigrants” was submitted to the Minister of the Interior by 24 MPs of the PASOK-Movement for Change, with the first signatory being the Member of State, P. Doudonis.

In their question, which they communicate to the Personal Data Protection Authority, they state that “on Friday 1/3/2024 and since then, many complaints from Greeks abroad who were registered in the special electoral lists abroad, that they received an advertising email from the current MEP and ND candidate again, Anna-Michel Asimakopoulou, without having ever given her their contact details or consented to their processing. It is interesting that the promotional emails were not sent to Greeks of only one or some communities of Greeks abroad, but their sending had a mass character, which raises questions and suspicions of central planning and acquisition of the addresses in question”, the MPs note and add that several of these complaints state that they gave the specific email only to register on the platform for the vote of emigrants “and nowhere else”.

According to the deputies of PASOK-Movement of Change, the pre-election communication of Mrs. Asimakopoulou “flagrantly violates the personal data protection legislation. It is characteristic that in the advertising newsletter received by those who registered in the special electoral lists abroad, in addition to the information about Mrs. Asimakopoulou’s campaign and the promise ‘I will contact you regularly’, they are asked to subscribe to the newsletter (a fact that proves that they had not subscribed ) and if they do not want to continue receiving advertising material to ‘unsubscribe’ from the ‘Emigration’ list (proving that without their consent their information was found on this list)”.

They even point out that the complaints about the violation of personal data “come from Greeks abroad, which means that in some way, the data of the voters who were registered in the special electoral rolls abroad, were leaked by the Ministry of the Interior. Therefore, the assurance of the Ministry of the Interior, which is the controller of said data, that in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (/2016/679/EU – GDPR) and national data protection legislation is not valid (n. 4624/2019), the purpose of processing the personal data of voters who registered in the application for the vote of Greeks abroad, was to facilitate the exercise of their right to vote from their place of residence abroad”.

Specifically, the MPs of PASOK-Movement for Change ask the minister:

1. How did the data registered by foreign voters on the platform of the Ministry of the Interior end up in the political office of the ND MEP?

2. What technical and organizational measures has your Ministry taken to ensure that the processing of voters’ personal data is GDPR compliant?

3. What measures has your Ministry taken to ensure that it is possible to verify afterwards and determine whether and by whom personal data has been entered, modified or removed?

4. What measures has your Ministry taken to strengthen the awareness of personnel involved in the processing of personal data?

5. What data security training have the data handlers received?

6. Does your Ministry know, as it should, how many and who have access to this data (individuals, or companies, or state or private bodies, including contractors)?

7. Does every person or company that has any work related to the electoral rolls have access to all the data or is the access classified?

8. Is the information scattered in several databases or in one?

9. Is there a clause in the contract with the contractor company for the case of leakage of personal data?

10. Since the Ministry cannot even ensure the privacy of the personal data of the voters registered in the special foreign electoral rolls, how can it ensure the privacy of the voters’ personal data and the integrity of the electoral process by postal vote?

Finally, they ask the relevant minister to present the contract with the contractor for the creation of the postal voting platform.