Constitution of the Russian Federation on personal data protection - SearchInform

Constitution of the Russian Federation on personal data protection

 
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The main document in the Russian Federation establishing the requirement for the protection of personal data (PD) is the Constitution. The whole system of protection of information related to personal is built on it, and legislative regulation of this issue is provided.

Highlights - Constitution of the Russian Federation

In accordance with Article 24 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, it is prohibited to collect, store, use and disseminate information about his private life without the consent of a citizen. At the state and municipal levels, officials are obliged to provide each person with the opportunity to get acquainted with the documentation and any materials related to his rights and freedoms, unless the legislation provides for other conditions for the implementation of these actions.

The protection of information that relates to the private life of a citizen is of particular importance in accordance with this article of the Constitution. This is due to the fact that any unauthorized interference with private relations:

  • humiliates human dignity (part 1 of article 21 of this document);
  • provides an opportunity for external manipulations with the use of his personal information;
  • is a real threat to the right to inviolability of private life and preservation of family secrets (Articles 23, 25), other freedoms and rights directly related to the self-determination of the individual - Articles 26, 28-30.

This document secures for citizens the provision of an extremely important right - to access information. The provisions of the Constitution that give such a right apply generally recognized principles, as well as international legal norms, agreements between the Russian Federation and other countries.

In the previous Constitution, the right to access information was enshrined in Article 62, but no mechanism was developed that would allow citizens to exercise this right. Therefore, it was not always possible to take advantage of this opportunity.

Implementation of the right to protection of personal data in legislation

With the beginning of the rapid development of modern information technologies, the total spread of the Internet, problems began to arise with the protection of personal rights, the prevention of attempts to unauthorized collection of personal data, the need to respond to abuse when collecting, processing and performing other actions with personal data. In connection with the change in the possibilities of accessing personal data, an extremely urgent issue of protecting information, which is of a personal nature, has arisen.

In Article 24 of the Constitution, the first paragraph defines the components of the legal regime of information concerning personal life. It is important from a legal point of view to define the concepts of “private life” of a person and “information”.

Russian legislation defines information as data about persons, facts, phenomena, regardless of the form in which it is provided (Federal Law "On Information, Informatization ..."). This legislative document also defines the information that is documented.

It includes information:

  • placed on tangible media;
  • about citizens, PD about events, circumstances occurring in a person's life, which provide an opportunity to establish his identity.

The concepts defining "privacy" are not clearly defined in the legislation.

Privacy information

The philosophical definition of private life is based on the signs of its certainty, including the opposition of the public and state spheres of life. Information about this direction of life is a reflection of the activity identified for an individual. It also includes informal personal communication - with relatives, colleagues, acquaintances, events that are important for a citizen, decisions, actions, including those that are based on his material and legal status, but do not matter in general for the state and society. An example of such information can be information about a property purchase registered on a legal basis, the choice of an educational institution for their children, a place to travel on vacation, a transfer to another job, and the placement of money in the form of a bank deposit.

Information about private life is data about views, opinions, other preferences, position taken in relation to specific issues.

Intimate life, spirituality, inner world and a person's worldview are of particular importance. In this direction of protecting personal information, the requirements of law and morality are unified and set the required guidelines for creating conditions for privacy.

The constitutional provisions were implemented in the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 31, 1993, which provided additional guarantees for the rights of every citizen to information. In accordance with this document, the work of government agencies, companies, enterprises, any public organizations, officials should be carried out in compliance with the principles of openness of information. Citizens should have access to information that relates to public or private interests. It also indicated the need to systematically provide citizens with information about decisions that are supposed to be made, or about those already taken.

Citizens' rights, article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation

The 23rd article spelled out the basic rights of citizens in the field of protection of their personal data:

  • to ensure personal protection (in relation to one individual);
  • to guarantee the observance of family secrets (concerning people with family relations);
  • to observe professional secrets related to certain types of profession;
  • to maintain the secrecy of communication - correspondence, conversations of all kinds, carried out using any technical devices (telephone communications, mail, telegraph, Internet);
  • on the ability to control information that spreads about a citizen;
  • to protect the good name and honor (slander, slander, falsifications aimed at deteriorating reputation);
  • to protect the person associated with the collection, use of PD. In the absence of the consent of the citizen to whom these data belong, their dissemination is prohibited;
  • ensuring the inviolability of the home.

Federal Law No. 152 "On the Protection of Personal Data" was developed on the basis of the Constitution in terms of ensuring human rights. In accordance with this regulatory document, all PD must be stored and processed using certified systems and methods that ensure protection and safety, as well as confidentiality.

Operators of personal data are all bodies, representative offices, individuals and legal entities whose activities are related to the use of information about citizens.

Relationships in which data are used for family and personal purposes, are collected and processed in courts, archives, in registers of individual entrepreneurs, if these data are associated with state secrets, do not fall under the rules for processing personal information.

For whatever purpose PDs are used and stored, all actions with them must be performed in compliance with the established procedure and all legal norms and requirements of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

11.12.2020

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