Filenews 23 January 2025
Clear spikes for violation of citizens' personal data and operation of a platform without legal basis, left MPs yesterday in the Legal Affairs Committee, on the occasion of the call of the Police for checking and paying extrajudicial cameras from the cameras.
The Legal Service and the Police defended the attempt to pay the approximately 250,000 outstanding out-of-court fees, stressing that the procedure announced last week is not illegal and that seeing if an out-of-court case is pending against them does not constitute service. The debate at one point heated after MPs were fierce about the way the police, with the consent of the Legal Service, moved to resolve the issue.
At the same time, in a note to Parliament, the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection states that she has identified a weakness in the way personal data entering the website of a private company is protected and suggested ways to protect them. The topic remained open for discussion next Wednesday, after out of 15 guests (departments, services and individuals) only two managed to speak. In fact, the representative of the General Prosecutor's Office, when she urgently asked for the floor to respond to the spikes that the platform has no legal basis, was not allowed and the session was interrupted, resulting in the other opinion not being heard.
The Commission was discussing "possible legal issues arising from the way citizens are informed about the payment of extrajudicial fines following an infringement recorded by photo-tagging cameras and the possible impact on citizens' fundamental rights". AKEL MP Aristos Damianou spoke of global originality, i.e. inviting citizens to ascertain whether they have been denounced and strongly questioned the existence of a legal basis on which this platform operates. DISY MP Fotini Tsiridou wondered how it can be considered that the citizen was notified of the existence of an extrajudicial case against him without amending the law and remarked that "if we wanted to scare citizens, that is another matter".
All MPs who spoke were strong that the way announced by the police violated human rights as well as the principle of non-self-incrimination.
The representative of the Legal Service, Polina Efthyvoulou, explained that the procedure decided does not consider that the extrajudicial document is served, nor have the regulations been circumvented. It is an opportunity given to the citizen for an out-of-court settlement, the presumption of innocence is respected and one can go to court and challenge an extrajudicial one. He also pointed out that the Attorney General always has the possibility to prosecute such offences. Simply with the out-of-court arrangement, the citizen is given the opportunity to settle the issue out of court, without inconvenience to the Court. He also said that the citizen who changed his address or mobile phone and they cannot find him, can enter the platform and see if there is an out-of-court case pending against him.
In Mr. Damianos' remark on what is the legal basis for the operation of the private company's platform, Efthyvoulou said that there is no need for the law to say that the Police can invite the public to be informed either by phone or to find out if any extrajudicial proceedings are pending against them. With this procedure, he stressed, it is not considered that the extrajudicial document was served. Mr. Damianou insisted that "you arbitrarily made a platform and you and the police are controlled."
The assistant head of the Traffic Police and responsible for the photo-tagging system, Haris Evripidou, said that because thousands of undeliverable extrajudicial cases are pending, we examined ways to pay them. The reasons they were not served, he said, are threefold:
1. There is no up-to-date database in the TFT to send all out-of-court documents to the correct address.
2. Citizens who received a registered letter avoided receiving the extrajudicial document from the Post Office.
3. Many people went to the Post Office and when they realized that it was an extrajudicial document from the cameras, they did not receive it.
Mr. Evripidou also revealed that postal workers told citizens when they went to pick up a registered letter, "Leave, fine, the cameras." He also said that this arrangement is not a substitute for written notice. He also added that the majority of the undelivered extrajudicial documents were tried unsuccessfully to be served within the 180-day period provided by law by the Post Office, some are in the attempt to be served and for others the subsidy went but failed to deliver them.
Commissioner's reservations on personal data
In a note to the Commission, the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection Irene Loizidou Nicolaidou states that she informed the Police that the registration of only two identifiers, namely the identification document number and the vehicle registration number, is not enough as persons other than the owner of the vehicle, who may be in possession of this data, will be able to detect if an out-of-court fine is pending for the vehicle.
"Therefore, we asked the Police to take measures to correct this situation," he adds, adding that they submitted three suggestions to resolve the problem that arose regarding the protection of personal data from the operation of the new system.
The Commissioner states that she has submitted three suggestions for resolving the problem that arose regarding the protection of personal data from the operation of the new system. In particular, it suggested examining whether it is technically feasible to add a third unique identifier, such as the expiry date of the identification document, which is not known to other persons. He also suggested that citizens enter their mobile phone number or e-mail address in order to receive a One-time Password which they should enter in order to proceed with the search, which ensures that no other persons will be able to access their information.
In addition, he suggested that the website and this tool be made available to the public only through the CYLOGIN service, where citizens are identified beforehand, which again ensures that no other persons will be able to locate out of court fines concerning the affected owner's vehicle. On behalf of the police, it was reported that it is not possible to implement its first two suggestions as it is difficult and time-consuming and that they are working towards the implementation of the third, namely that the website and this tool be made available to the public only through the CYLOGIN service.
