Ruling of the Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases, dated July 27, 2016, case No. 760/9778/15-ц.  Available at http://www.reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/59288070

The plaintiff was in the Main Military Clinical Hospital recovering after being wounded during the anti-terrorist operation. The co-defendant spoke with the plaintiff on October 13, 2014, while the latter was in the hospital, with the purpose of writing a journalist article for the company Siohodni Multimedia, and the article was later published…

The plaintiff states that he asked the journalist (co-defendant) not to use the information about the plaintiff for the publication, but the co-defendant, taking advantage of the plaintiff’s condition after the medical operation, learned details of the plaintiff’s personal life, disclosed them in the co-defendant’s article published by the company Siohodni Multimedia (also the co-defendant) in the newspaper “Siohodni” in the Special Project section on page 9…

Therefore, the court of first instance, with which the court of appeals also agreed, reached the correct conclusion qualifying the transfer of confidential information by the co-defendant about the plaintiff and without plaintiff’s consent to the company Siohodni Multimedia, because the amount of information about the plaintiff contained in the article (the name, previous place of residence, place where he got wounded, who released him from the captivity, name of the commander, place of work of the relatives), makes it possible to precisely identify the plaintiff, therefore obtainment of plaintiff’s consent to the publication of this data was mandatory.

Ruling of the Kyiv City Court of Appeals, dated May 20, 2014, case No. 22-ц/796/5948/2014.  Available at http://www.reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/39503093

The court of first instance correctly stated that not all data about an individual identify this individual, because party affiliation, religious views, nationality, sex, profession, any bio-metric, social data, and even residence address are inherently generic and can be attributed to many people at the same time.

However, when the data is combined with an individual’s name and surname, they will fall under the category of personal data. A similar statement is contained in a letter from the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice, dated 15.11.2013, No. 13232-0-26-13 / 61, which refers to the definition of personal data provided in the Recommendation CM/RES (2010) of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to Member States on the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data in the context of profiling. According to the definition personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.

An individual is not considered “identifiable” if identification requires unreasonable time or effort.

The Communication (COM(2010) 609) from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, titled “A comprehensive approach on personal data protection in the European Union” of 4.11.2010 provides that the definition of ‘personal data’ aims at covering all information relating to an identified or identifiable person, either directly or indirectly.

Therefore, the panel of judges agrees with the lower court conclusion that the surname and first name of an individual are not personal data, because based on this data it is not possible to identify an individual precisely, and additional information about that individual is needed in order to identify the individual by name and surname.

Ruling of the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine, dated September 21, 2017, case No. 2а/1570/7865/11.  Available at http://reyestr.court.gov.ua/Review/69064573

Decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine No. 2-рп/2012 of January 20, 2012 provides that the notion of personal and family life covers any information and/or data on relations of non-property and property nature, circumstances, events, relationships, etc., related to the individual in question and his/her family members, with the exception provided for by laws regarding the information related to the exercise of official powers by individuals holding a position related to performing  functions of state or local government bodies.

Such information about an individual is confidential. Collection, storage, use and dissemination of confidential information about an individual by the state, local authorities, legal entities or individuals without consent of the above-mentioned individual is interference in the personal and family life of that individual. Such interference is permitted only in cases specified by law, and only in the interests of national security, economic welfare and human rights.

Considering the expanded list of the concept of information about an individual formulated by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine in the above decision, it also covers information about a vehicle owned by an individual.

© Yuriy Karlash, English translation, 2019

© Yuriy Karlash, compilation, 2019