President: Law on Mediating Operators' Data Not in Conflict With Constitution

Bratislava, March 27 (TASR) – President Zuzana Caputova considers making data from operators accessible to the Public Health Authority (UVZ) in connection with the new coronavirus pandemic to be appropriate to the current situation, TASR was told by the president’s spokesman Martin Strizinec on Friday.

Caputova won’t therefore turn to the Constitutional Court over the law on emergency measures in connection with the spread of the dangerous contagious human disease COVID-19 and in the judiciary.

“The president signed the law yesterday. According to her, it doesn’t contradict the Constitution. The president opines that this measure is appropriate for the situation we are in because it is limited in time and its purpose is to protect people from spreading the disease,” said Strizinec.

Opposition Smer-SD leader Robert Fico called on the president to turn to the Constitutional Court at a press conference on Friday. Smer-SD doesn’t like the law giving the Public Health Authority (UVZ) the possibility to gain and process data from mobile operators. If the president doesn’t turn to the court, Smer-SD will do so.

Parliament approved the piece of legislation on Wednesday (March 25). It gives UVZ access to data from mobile phone operators subject to telecommunications secrecy, although not the content of the messages. The authority can use the data in connection with the emergence of the pandemic or the spread of a dangerous infectious disease.

The mobile phone operator data will be processed in anonymous form for statistical purposes needed to prevent danger to lives and public health and to identify SMS message recipients, to whom special UVZ measures, for instance related to quarantine, must be relayed. The UVZ will also have access to localisation data and can collect and store such data only during the state of emergency. It is obligated to delete them by the end of the calendar year at the very latest.