Belarus plans to toughen responsibility for violating personal data legislation

Last year, 18 out of 200 control actions carried out in Belarus and related to operators processing personal data involved administrative responsibility – as stated by the Director of the National Personal Data Protection Centre of the Republic of Belarus, Andrei Gaev, at today’s press conference at the National Press Centre

“This year, we will make legislative amendment proposals on administrative offences. It is necessary to consistently expand the functionality and powers of the National Personal Data Protection Centre, which today does not have the authority to draw up protocols on administrative offences. We are co-operating with the internal affairs agencies on these issues. One of the proposals concerns the possibility of giving the Centre appropriate powers to increase the efficiency of work in this direction.”

Andrei Gaev noted that it is also planned to change the amount of the fine for violation of privacy. 

“The current fines, especially for legal entities, are insignificant. Their maximum size today is 50 base amounts. Therefore, some organisations have taken a wait-and-see attitude in terms of ensuring the security of personal data and implementing mandatory measures provided for by legislation to protect it. An increase in the amount of the fine will encourage such organisations to work more actively in this direction.” 

According to Andrei Gaev, the tendency to increase sanctions is typical for the legislation of many countries. In some of them, for example, in Russia, even negotiable fines from the proceeds of the offender have been introduced. By the way, in Russia, the number of incidents involving the leakage of personal data has increased almost forty times in two years. The fines are rising precisely to ensure the security of citizens' personal data.