Processing of sensitive personal medical data in Czech Republic

By Thomas Vink, 4th July 2022

IuRe is planning litigation to challenge the processing and use of sensitive personal medical data by the Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics through the National Health Information System. The processing practices take place pursuant to the Health Services Act.

Before taking litigation, IuRe is carrying out pre-litigation research to get a better understanding of how data is being processed and used by the system. They believe that the system is violating data protection and privacy rights, and that data is being used beyond the purposes for which it has been collected, because only anonymised or aggregated data is necessary for the system to achieve its objectives.

Alongside desk research, the pre-litigation stage will involve members or volunteers of IuRe requesting information on the processing of their personal data in accordance with the GDPR (i.e. subject access requests). As well as helping to map out the functioning of the system, in individual cases where serious violations of fundamental rights or misuse of data are found, these individuals may go on to be claimants in the litigation to follow.

Processing of sensitive personal medical data in Czech Republic

Organisation Name

Iuridicum Remedium (IuRe)

Country/Jurisdiction

Czech Republic

Amount Granted

EUR 15,108

Current Status

Ongoing

Grant type

Pre-litigation Research Support

Description

IuRe is planning litigation to challenge the processing and use of sensitive personal medical data by the Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics through the National Health Information System. The processing practices take place pursuant to the Health Services Act.

Before taking litigation, IuRe is carrying out pre-litigation research to get a better understanding of how data is being processed and used by the system. They believe that the system is violating data protection and privacy rights, and that data is being used beyond the purposes for which it has been collected, because only anonymised or aggregated data is necessary for the system to achieve its objectives.

Alongside desk research, the pre-litigation stage will involve members or volunteers of IuRe requesting information on the processing of their personal data in accordance with the GDPR (i.e. subject access requests). As well as helping to map out the functioning of the system, in individual cases where serious violations of fundamental rights or misuse of data are found, these individuals may go on to be claimants in the litigation to follow.

"the system is violating data protection and privacy rights, and...data is being used beyond the purposes for which it has been collected"

Strategic Goal

To achieve systemic change in the functioning of the National Health Information System and improve the general culture of sensitive medical data processing in state administration.

Media and related links

Organisation Name

Women’s Link Worldwide

Image credit: National Cancer Institute on Unsplash