Hellenic Data Protection Authority Decision No. 050/20.01.2000 Conditions for the lawful processing of personal data as regards the purposes of direct marketing/advertising and the ascertainment of credibility
(Abbreviated version)
Α) As far as trading of personal data for the purpose of direct marketing and/or promotion of sales is concerned, processing of the said data shall be considered lawful under limitations. Collection of personal data shall be effected either following consent of the data subject or arising from catalogues addressed to the public such as telephone directories and trade fair catalogues provided that the subjects have granted their consent for the inclusion of their data in the said catalogues or published their data for similar purposes. Collection of data shall also be considered lawful if the said data is collected from sources available to the public and only if conditions regarding lawful access are kept. Data collected for the aforementioned purposes may include full name, address and profession. The agent of collection has the obligation to consult the special Register of the Data Protection Authority with which those who do not wish to have their data involved in activities concerning direct advertising and promotion of sales are registered following application and are, thus, exempted from any collection of their data whatsoever. As soon as the first letter is sent to the subject, the sender shall inform the addressee regarding the source of his/her information and ask for the said subject’s consent in order to use the data. The decision of the Data Protection Authority also mentions the Act on consumer protection regarding the banning of transmission of advertising messages via telephone, fax, electronic mail or other electronic means without the explicit consent of the consumer. B) Concerning the processing of personal data for the purpose of ascertainment of credibility, the Data Protection Authority shall set conditions in order to reduce processing that takes place without the consent of the subject. In particular, the collection of the following data shall be permitted: petitions in bankruptcy; decisions regarding petitions in bankruptcy; bills of exchange; auction programmes concerning movable property and real estate; changes in firms, societes anonymes, limited companies and joint ventures; mortgages and securing by mortgage; seizures and cheques under Presidential Decree No. 1923; dud cheques; protested bills of exchange and protested bills payable to order. Special time limits concerning keeping the said data and limitations regarding the recording of the ensuing changes in relation to the said data eg. immediate recording of the settlement of a dud cheque shall be set for the aforementioned categories. Following collection, companies in charge shall have the obligation to inform the data subjects as regards to the recording of data. In case the data subjects object to it and ask for deletion of information, the said companies shall be obliged to delete the data and inform the data subjects of consequences that may arise and may affect their behaviour in terms of exchanges. Only businesspeople using the data according to the provisions for lawful use shall be the recipients of the aforementioned data. It is emphasized that recipient companies shall have the right to collect only the unfavourable data mentioned above. Favourable data relating to the financial position such as real estate shall only be collected following consent of the data subject. Thus, the creation of financial position overall profiles without the knowledge of the data subjects is avoided. Thanks to the said decision, the Data Protection Authority intends to set the conditions of processing credibility-related information taking always into account the citizen’s protection from the processing of personal data as well as the right of the businesspeople of the country to lawful access to information necessary for the safety of exchanges.
