In harmony with the contents of the Constitution of the Republic of
Hungary, Parliament creates the following Act on the basic rules
serving the protection of personal data and the enforcement of the
right of access to data of public interest:
(2) Any deviation from the contents of this Act is only possible if expressly permitted by this Act.
(3) Any exception permitted in accordance with this Act may only be established jointly with regard to particular types and handlers of data. Interpretative Provisions
1. personal data: data which can be associated with a particular natural person (hereinafter: person concerned), the conclusion, which can be drawn from the data, relating to the person concerned. Personal data keep their above defined quality in the course of data handling until their connection with the person concerned can be restored;
2. special data:
personal data relating to
b) health condition, abnormal addiction, sexual life and criminal record;
4. data handling: irrespective of the procedure applied, recording and storage, processing and utilization of personal data (including forwarding and publication), the change of data and the prevention of their further use shall also be considered data handling;
5. forwarding of data: if the data are made accessible to particular third parties;
6. publication: if the data are made accessible to anybody;
7. data handler: organs or persons carrying out or making others carry out the activities defined in paragraph 4;
8. deletion of data: the rendering of data unrecognizable in a manner that their restoration is not possible;
9. legal rule: the Act, and local government decrees in respect of Section 1, subsection (1), Section 6, subsection (1), Section 12, subsection (1), Section 24, Section 25 and Section 28, subsection (2) of this Act.
b) in the case of the data contained in Section 2, paragraph 2 a), it is based on an international agreement, or is ordered by an Act in the interest of the enforcement of a fundamental right provided in the Constitution, furthermore, in the interest of national security, crime prevention and criminal investigation;
c) required by the law in other cases.
(4) The consent of the person concerned shall be considered given in respect of the data disclosed by him in the course of his public appearance, or delivered by him for the purpose of publication.
(5) In the proceedings instituted at the request of the person concerned, his consent to the handling of his necessary data shall be presumed. The attention of the person concerned shall be drawn to this fact.
(2) Only such personal data may be handled which are indispensable for accomplishing the purpose of data handling, are suitable for achieving the purpose, and only to the extent and for the time required for the accomplishment of the purpose.
(3) Data handling based on mandatory data supply may be ordered for reasons of public interest.
(2) The person concerned shall be notified of the purpose of data handling and of the identity of the persons who will handle the data. Notification shall also have been effected if a legal rule provides for recording the data on the basis of the existing data handling through forwarding or connection.
b) they are precise, complete and, if required, up-to-date;
c) the manner of their storage is suitable for enabling identification of the person concerned only for the time required for the purpose of storage.
(2) The application of a general and uniform personal identification mark, which can be used without restriction, is prohibited.
(2) Subsection (1) shall apply to the connection of data handled by the same data handler or by the state and local government organs.
(2) Data shall be protected particularly against illegal access, change, publication or deletion, and/or against damage or destruction.
b) request the correction of his personal data, or their deletion, with the exception of the data handled as ordered by legal rules (Sections 14 to 16).
(2) The data handler shall provide the information within the shortest possible time reckoned from the submission of the application, but within not more than 30 days, in writing, in a form which is easy to understand.
(3) The information contained in subsection (2) is free of charge, if applicant did not submit an application for information regarding the same field to the data handler in the current year. In other cases, cost compensation may be established. The cost compensation, which has already been paid, shall be refunded if the data were handled illegally or if the application for information led to correction.
(2) The data handler shall notify the person concerned of the reasons for refusing the disclosure of information.
(3) The data handler shall notify annually the data protection commissioner of the applications refused.
(2) Personal data shall be deleted, if
b) requested by the person concerned in accordance with the contents of Section 11, subsection (1), paragraph b);
c) the purpose of data handling has ceased.
(2) The data handler shall prove whether the handling of data corresponds to the contents of legal rules.
(3) The court where the head office of the data handler is located is competent to conduct the lawsuit. All those who otherwise have no contentious legal capacity may also be parties to the lawsuit.
(4) If the court sustains the application, it shall oblige the data handler to give information, to correct or delete the data, and/or shall oblige the data protection commissioner to provide access to the data protection register.
(5) The court may order the entry of its judgment in the data protection register, if required by data protection interests and by the rights of a large number of persons concerned, as protected in this Act.
(2) No compensation shall be paid for the damage to the extent that it was caused by the wilful or seriously negligent conduct of the damaged party. Chapter III
(2) The organs referred to in subsection (1) shall publish or make accessible in any other manner the most important data related to their activities, in particular, the data relating to their sphere of authority, competence, organizational structure, the types of data in their possession and the legal rules applicable to their operation. Unless an Act provides otherwise, the names and positions of persons acting within the competence of these organs shall be public data accessible to anybody.
(3) Those referred to in subsection (1) shall make possible that anybody may have access to the data of public interest handled by them, unless declared a state or service secret by the organ entitled to do so, on the basis of the given Act, furthermore, if the right to the publicity of the data of public interest is restricted by an Act, by defining the types of data, in the interest of
b) national security;
c) criminal investigation or crime prevention;
d) for central financial or foreign exchange policy reasons;
e) in respect of the conduct of foreign relations, relations with international organizations, and
f) of court proceedings.
(5) Unless an Act provides otherwise, data generated for internal use and in connection with the preparation of decisions shall not be public within thirty years following their inception. At request, the head of the organ may permit access to the data even within the above time limit.
(2) The applicant shall be notified of the refusal of an application, together with the reasons therefor, in writing, within 8 days.
(3) The head of the data handling organ may establish cost compensation for the communication of data of public interest, up to not more than the extent of costs incurred in connection with the communication. At the request of the applicant, the amount of such cost shall be communicated in advance.
(4) The organs referred to in Section 19, subsection (1) shall notify annually the data protection commissioner of the applications refused and the reasons for the refusals.
(2) The organ handling the data shall prove the lawfulness and well-foundedness of any refusal.
(3) The action shall be instituted against the organ, within 30 days reckoned from the communication of the refusal, which refused to issue the information requested.
(4) All those who otherwise have no contentious legal capacity may also be parties to the action.
(5) Actions instituted against organs whose authority extends to the whole country shall come under the jurisdiction of the county (metropolitan) court. The local court located at the seat of the county court shall act in matters coming under the jurisdiction of the local court, while the Central District Court of Pest shall act in Budapest. The competence of the court shall be established by the head office (place of operation) of the organ which failed to perform the disclosure of data.
(6) The court shall act in priority procedure.
(7) If the court sustains the application, it shall oblige the data handling organ to disclose the requested data of public interest in its decision. Section 22
The provisions of this Chapter may not apply to the data supplied from the authentic register, regulated in a separate Act.
(2) With the differences contained in this Act, the provisions of the Act on the Parliamentary Commissioner for Citizens' Rights shall apply to the data protection commissioner.
b) examine the reports submitted to him;
c) provide for keeping the data protection register.
(2) In the case of noticing unlawful data handling, the data protection commissioner shall request the data handler to terminate data handling. The data handler shall take the necessary measures without delay, and shall notify the data protection commissioner thereof, in writing, within 30 days.
(3) If the data handler does not terminate unlawful data handling, the data protection commissioner shall inform the public of the fact of data handling, the person of the data handler and the sphere of the data handled.
(2) The data protection commissioner may enter all premises where data handling is carried out.
(3) State secrets and service secrets may not prevent the data protection commissioner from exercising his rights regulated in this Section, but the provisions relating to keeping the secret shall also be binding on him. In cases of data handling affecting state secrets or service secrets, the data protection commissioner may only exercise his rights at the armed forces, the police, and the national security organs in person.
(4) If in the course of his activities, the data protection commissioner considers the qualification of certain data unjustified, he shall request the qualifying party to change them, or to terminate the qualification. The qualifying party may appeal to the Metropolitan Court within 30 days in order to establish the unfounded nature of the request. The court shall act in the matter in priority proceedings, at a closed hearing.
(2) Nobody may suffer disadvantage as a result of his report to the data protection commissioner. The reporting party shall be given the same protection as those making reports of public interest.
b) types of data and legal grounds of their handling;
c) sphere o f persons concerned;
d) sources of data;
e) types and addressees of the data forwarded, and legal grounds of forwarding;
f) deadline for deleting each type of data;
g) name and address (head office) of the data handler, as well as the place of actual data handling.
(3) The national security organs shall announce the purposes and legal grounds of their data handling.
(2) Any changes in the data specified in Section 28, subsection (1) shall be reported to the data protection commissioner within 8 days and the register shall be amended accordingly.
a) contains the data of persons maintaining employment, membership, students' or clients' legal relationship with the data handler;
b) is effected in accordance with the internal rules of churches, religious denominations and religious communities;
c) contains personal data relating to the illness or health condition of persons treated within the framework of health provision, for the purpose of medical treatment, health preservation, or the enforcement of a social insurance claim;
d) contains data aimed at and recording the financial and other social support of the person concerned;
e) contains the personal data of persons affected by authority's, prosecutor's or court proceedings, relating to the conducting thereof;
f) contains personal data serving official statistics, provided that the establishment of the connection between the data and the given person is rendered definitively impossible, as defined in a separate Act;
g) contains such data of companies and organs coming under the scope of the Press Act which exclusively serve their own information activities;
h) serves the purposes of scientific research, if the data are not published;
i) was transferred to the archives from the data handler;
j) serves the own purposes of natural persons
do not have to be reported to the data protection register.
(2) Personal data, as soon as made possible by the purpose of the research, shall be rendered anonymous. Even until then, data which are suitable for the identification of defined or definable natural persons shall be stored separately. These data may only be connected with other data if it is required for the purpose of the research.
(3) Organs or persons carrying out scientific research may only publish personal data, if
b) it is required for presenting the results of research pursued in connection with historical events.
(2) Chapter III (Sections 19 to 22) of the Act shall come into force on the 15th day following its promulgation.
(3) Chapter IV (Sections 23 to 31) of the Act shall come into force simultaneously with the coming into force of the Act on the Parliamentary Commissioner for Citizens' Rights.
(2) The legal directives related to data handling may not apply after the promulgation of this Act.
(2) Data handlers shall report the various instances of data handling existing at the time of the coming into force of this Act to the data protection register within 3 months following the election of the data protection commissioner.
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