It comes back to the fore, through her APDPH the highly acclaimed case involving the scandal of the e-mail leak of emigrants. In the wake of the fines imposed on the Ministry of the Interior and Anna Michel Asimakopoulou last May, additional information comes through the Nikos Theodoropoulouwho “both orally at the hearing and in his pleading he states, inter alia, that all of his actions were made to achieve the goals set by the New Republic, after receiving instructions to carry out the specific actions”as typically stated in decision 22/2024 of the APDPH.
Read about it: Asimakopoulou scandal: Fine of 40,000 euros to the MEP and 400,000 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the leak of emails
At the same time, he points out that “he does not know, nor should he have known from his position, how the disputed electoral lists were obtained from the ND”.
In another point of the decision of the Personal Data Protection Authority it is noted that: “On 07-31-2024 and after the deadline for submission of memoranda and documents, Mr. Theodoropoulos presented under no. C/EIS/6299/31-07-2024 its supplementary document, the responsible statement from 31-07-2024 of Ms. B, ND party official and …, digitally signed via gov.gr. by which it is declared, among other things, that “[…] Nikos Theodoropoulos sent the aforementioned file of electoral lists of foreign voters to the Press Representative of the ND Eurogroup, Mrs. Anna Michele Asimakopoulou, following a party order and direction from above, in the context of his duties as Secretary of Expatriates»
Apart from Nikos Theodoropoulos, former Secretary of Expatriates, the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data invited again to a hearing SWhim Michalis Stavrianoudakisformer Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Menio Koromilasthen Organizing Secretary of Self-Government and Crisis Management of the ND.
The APDPH notes in its reasoning that from the content of the new data, “there is a need to further investigate the claims presented in them, in view of the conflicting claims of the audited regarding whether the considered processing of personal data took place in order to achieve the purposes and means determined by the ND through its executives in the context of exercising their powers or from the latter as natural persons independently for their own purposes”.
The Authority decided to postpone the issuance of the decision in order to take into account the new data presented by the former secretary.
It is noted that in July, the former Secretary of the ND Nikos Theodoropouloshad spoken publicly about revelations. In his post, he wrote, among other things, that despite the contrary publications that presented him as a “carrier” this has no basis.
He emphasized that he was first waiting for the Authority’s decision and then “will all are answered in the right way”. The first sentence in his post was also typical: “In case of e-mailsuntil now I have chosen not to speak. As of today, this it ends.”
Read about it: Asimakopoulos Scandal: Nikos Theodoropoulos denies his involvement and publicly threatens revelations
Decision 22/2024 of the APDPH in detail
The rationale for the fines on YPES and Asimakopoulou
Last May, the APDPH had imposed a fine 40,000 euros for the illegal processing of citizens’ personal data while at the same time imposed a fine of 400,000 euros and to the Ministry of the Interior.
As for New Democracy and Mr. Theodoropoulos, the Authority postponed the issuance of a decision, given that the latter, after the hearing and the submission of pleadings, presented his affidavit as to the manner in which the electoral rolls were accessed, as a new crucial element, from the content of which arises the need to further investigate the allegations made there.
According to the decisionthe file in question was created on 8 June 2023 for internal use at the Ministry of the Interior in relation to a purpose relating to the electoral process.
As the Authority concludes “the leak of the specific file occurred between June 8 and 23, 2023, as it turned out that on June 23, 2023 the file was forwarded to the then Secretary of Expatriates of the New Republic, Nikos Theodoropoulos, by a sender whose identity and status have not yet been determined, in order, according to his claims, to use it to analyze the results of the elections”.
On January 20, 2024 the file in question according to the GDPR was sent to Ms. Asimakopoulou by Mr. Theodoropoulos. “Ms. Asimakopoulou then edited the file originating from the Ministry of the Interior with the aim of sending an e-mail to all the voters contained in it. Ms. Asimakopoulou’s electronic message did not include the information required by Article 14 of the GDPR to inform its recipients, in particular about the source of their personal data,” it states.
As for the Ministry of the Interior, “the leak of a file intended exclusively for internal use is an incident of violation of the confidentiality of personal data and therefore a violation of personal data” it says characteristically. “During the audit carried out by the Authority at the Ministry of the Interior, deficiencies were identified in the procedures and applied data protection policies, faults in the investigation of the incident as well as undocumented announcements of the circumstances of the incident. Finally, deficiencies and inaccuracies were found in the content of the relevant activity files kept,” he adds.
As for Michelle Asimakopoulou, the Authority found that the collection of personal data of emigrant voters, including electronic communication details and their use for sending a political communication message was done “in violation of the basic principle of legality, objectivity and transparency of the processing, as it was done in violation of a number of provisions of electoral law and furthermore could not reasonably be expected for the data subjects (foreign voters)”.
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