The Passport of Opportunity feeds passions: legal experts have ruled on the basis to verify visitor data

„The store security guard does not have the right to verify any of your personal data, that is, the opportunity passport. The Passport of Opportunities is an aid in the fight against a pandemic and has no legal force. You do not have the right to provide your data to anyone, to allow scanning or copying your passport of options.

You have every right to request a certificate from a security employee or other inspection employee that you have the right to work with personal data by law. The company or service provider does not have the right to collect your data and use it for marketing or statistics without your written consent.“, – that call to oppose the current regime is spreading on the social network Facebook (the language is not corrected).

It has already been shared by more than 5,000. Internet users.

Outraged by the new order

As of Monday, all contact services, business activities and events will no longer be available to people without a passport.

These can no longer enter more than 1.5 thousand. kv. a few meters from shops and supermarkets, beauty salons, catering establishments, events, sports clubs, cinemas and other entertainment venues.

This has sparked a wave of protests: some militants against the passport of opportunity are calling for opposition to the requirement to present it, arguing that such requirements are a legally redundant measure.

Those who refused to vaccinate, did not obtain immunity and did not take the test, as soon as they found out about the planned changes, they called for a boycott of the main supermarkets and places where a passport of opportunity will be requested.

Lawyer: the passport of opportunity is a legal tool

Dean of the Faculty of Public Management and Business of the Mykolas Romeris University, prof. Darius Štitilis stated that supermarkets and other economic entities require the passport of opportunity legally.

According to the professor, employees who verify opportunity passports are required to do so by employers, and the latter in accordance with the procedure established by the state.

“Any data controller, in this case a person subordinate to a store, can access or process personal data if the controller (specific store) gives instructions to process that data.” Giving instructions “is usually an internal matter of the controller ( shop).

Instructions can be given by enshrining them in job descriptions, in a separate order, or otherwise. The competent authority, the State Data Protection Inspectorate, can verify the existence of such instructions to the security officer for the processing of personal data ”, said the lawyer.

Based on the public interest

According to Johann Baltrim, a professor in the Department of Public Law at the Vilnius University (VU) Law School, the arguments about the illegal use of personal data used in distributed manipulation on social media appear to be broken.

“According to this logic, the cashiers of the stores could not verify the document of a person who buys alcohol or tobacco by checking their date of birth.

In general, the lawfulness of the treatment of the opportunity passport data is based on the conditions of article 6 of the BDAR, which allow it if compliance with a legal obligation is based on the public interest, etc.

The government has provided that people who approve a passport of opportunity can only review documents that prove that the person meets the requirements established in the legislation. It is prohibited to collect, store or otherwise process the revised data (paragraph 5.2 of the Resolution “On the declaration of a state emergency”).

If the authorities do not abuse the situation and use the personal data only to verify whether the person has the right to enter it, complaining in the context of a pandemic that the person conducting the verification will know the name of the visitor seems an unreasonable whim. “said the lawyer.

You can go to court

According to legal specialist J. Baltrimas, calls on social media to require security guards and other passport holders to present certificates that they have the right to work with personal data are not justified.

It would be curious to see the legal arguments of those who affirm this. In this case, the special rules that provide for the verification of the passport are established in the aforementioned Government Resolution and do not establish the requirement that the security guards have special certificates for the examination of the GPs.

The special rule takes precedence over the general one and according to the Constitution its legality is presumed, it must be followed until the court recognizes that the special rule (a requirement approved by the Government) is illegal.

Everyone has the right to defend their interests in court, in this case the constitutional review could be initiated by members of the Seimas who are skeptical about the GP, who have the right to go to the Constitutional Court ”, explained J. Baltrimas.

No need to show certificates

MRU professor D. Štitilis emphasized that the employer can authorize a person to verify the passport of opportunity without necessarily confirming it with an issued certificate.

“It should be noted that the legislation does not specifically regulate which employee can request an opportunity passport; as already mentioned, this right is granted to its employees by the employer himself, taking into account the functions of the employee, and this is an internal matter of the employer.

In other words, the employee authorized by the person responsible for the treatment is not obliged to demonstrate to the interested parties (data) by any additional means that he is duly authorized to process personal data ”, explained the lawyer.

The statements regarding the prohibition of the collection of personal data are correct. The Ministry of Health also emphasizes that only one processing operation will be carried out with the opportunity passport: review, other personal data processing operations (collection, storage, etc.) are not possible.

There have been isolated incidents

On Monday, information was released about the conflict over the passport of opportunities caused by Antanas Kandrotas-Celofan, suspected of organizing riots near the Seimas in September, in Kaunas “Akropolis”.

As announced by Kaunas County Police, at 10:57. a passerby received a message that a man was in conflict at the entrance to the Akropolis shopping center.

After a few minutes, 10:59 am, he received and notification to the representatives of the supermarket administration about the person in internal conflict.

“When the officers went, the person was found outside, and they brought him the goods that the man came to the supermarket to collect,” announced the representatives of the Kaunas police.

Despite minor incidents, retailers say the first day of passport verification is easy.

15 minutes Maxima’s media representative, Rima Aukštuolytė, was reluctant to predict changes in traffic. He did not rule out the possibility that it could be lower than usual, since buyers could go to a smaller store of this chain or competitors.

A Maxima spokeswoman added that there have already been complaints. “People are not very satisfied with these restrictions, so there have been complaints on social media, sometimes we get letters,” said R. Aukštuolytė.

At the time, Gintaras Alekna, the security manager for the Rimi retail chain, told reporters over Monday’s lunch that the workday began smoothly, although several shoppers who did not have the opportunity to have a passport had to agree. lap.

“The first day is a challenge for everyone, but the working day started off without a hitch. Security guards work at the entrances, checking EU passports and digital certificates.

We have not had any incidents yet. Yes, several buyers did not have opportunity passports, we only asked them to come with an opportunity passport or to visit those stores where opportunity passports are not needed, “G. Alekna told reporters.

Norfa’s flow management processes in retail chains also run smoothly, company spokesman Darius Ryliškis said. Still, he did not want to draw general preliminary conclusions, as the largest flows will be recorded at night.

“In 39 of the 152 stores, it is necessary to verify the passports or relevant documents. So far, it is difficult to make generalizations, because Monday, the first half of the day, is not the time when most shoppers go to the stores. “, said.

The post was prepared in 15 minutes. in collaboration with Facebook, which aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network.

More about the program and its rules – here.