The President of the Personal Data Protection Office has initiated administrative proceedings regarding the processing by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Health of personal data of academic teachers, doctoral students and students regarding vaccination against COVID-19. The case of the transfer of this information by the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of National Education and Science was dealt with by the Ombudsman, Marcin Wiącek, who turned to the President of the UODO. According to the Ombudsman, there could have been a “violation of the constitutional principle of legalism”.
Ombudsman In January 2022, Marcin Wiącek applied to the Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek “to explain the circumstances in which the minister responsible for higher education and science obtained detailed data of academic teachers, students and doctoral students of the university along with information about being vaccinated”.
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As explained on the website of the Ombudsman’s office, the letter was related to concerns that “the minister of higher education and science may have had access to detailed health data”. It was emphasized that “these are data of a sensitive nature, for which the constitution provides for the highest degree of protection”. “No legal act authorizes the minister of education and science to access such data. Therefore, the constitutional principle of legalism, according to which the authorities act on the basis and within the limits of the law, may have been violated” – added.
Data in two different registers were compiled and connected by PESEL number
Minister Czarnek – as the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights informed – wrote back in February last year in response to Marcin Wiącekthat “at no stage of verification of the level of vaccination of members of the university communities, the ministry did not have access to detailed data of a sensitive nature, allowing to identify individual persons”. He explained that the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage obtained “only statistical data on the level of vaccination at universities, i.e. anonymous data.”
The response from the Ministry of Education and Science, however, showed that “the data contained in two different registers were compiled and combined using the PESEL number to check which people from these groups are vaccinated and which are not.” According to the information provided by the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, the data was transferred at the request of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Integrated Information System on Higher Education and Science POL-on to the Electronic Platform for Collecting, Analyzing and Sharing Digital Resources on Medical Events.
The ministry explained that “on the initiative of the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland, on December 21, 2021, the ministers of education and health concluded a cooperation agreement to obtain statistical information on the level of vaccination against COVID disease in this academic environment.”
Przemysław Czarnek and Adam NiedzielskiDarek Delmanowicz/PAP
The President of the Personal Data Protection Office checks
The Ombudsman, Marcin Wiącek, noted that the data was compiled “on the basis of an agreement, i.e. without a legal basis under the Act”. In February 2022, he asked the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, Jan Nowak, to investigate the matter.
In a letter addressed to the Ombudsman, the UODO informed that on July 27, administrative proceedings were initiated in the case processing by the Minister of Education and Science and the Minister of Health of personal data of academic teachers, doctoral students and students in the field of vaccination against COVID-19. It added that the Ombudsman will be informed about the outcome of the proceedings “immediately” after the decision.
Main photo source: Darek Delmanowicz/PAP