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Mass download of Poles’ personal data sparks fears

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 30.08.2016 08:10
Prosecutors are investigating whether there was an unauthorized use of data from Poland's national identification number database after a massive personal data download by five bailiff offices.
Source: PixabaySource: PixabayFoto: pixabay.com/CC0

Downloading personal data from the national identification number (PESEL) database is well within the rights of bailiff offices, as a way of verifying if they are targeting the right person.

But the sheer amount of downloads has raised concerns that the data may have been used for purposes other than intended.

For example, one of the bailiff offices has collected the data of more than 800,000 people and filed nearly 1.8 million queries to the database since March 2015 alone.

A spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw said, however, that so far there has been no indication of a data leak and no instance of personal data being handled by unauthorized persons.

The PESEL database contains more than 20 different items of data about each resident of Poland - not only name, date of birth and address, but also identity card number, all of which put together may be enough to take out a loan in somebody’s name.

A bailiff is authorized to access only some of the data and only as part of a debt collection case. (mol/pk)

Source: PAP

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