Human Rights Monitoring Institute

Seimas Chairman Artūras Paulauskas is to meet the representatives of the HRMI and other institutions related to human rights at 11 am - 12:30 pm on Friday. The Overview of Human Rights in Lithuania and the latest HRMI research The Right to Respect for Private Life: ID Number Usage in Lithuania will be presented during the meeting.  
 
Rapidly growing usage of ID numbers raises concerns in relation to human rights. Every third legal instrument regulating the usage of ID numbers violates the right to privacy. The principle of proportionality is being contravened since measures do not correspond with aims to be achieved. This situation provides grounds for privacy abuses and creates the sense of vulnerability.

Henrikas Mickevičius, the Executive Director of HRMI, says that the standard accepted worldwide to disclose private personal data only in necessary cases and only to the minimum extent needed is not applied in Lithuania.

The HRMI recommends to reduce the number of personal data items that are to be revealed; to provide as many as possible cases where direct personal data are replaced by encoded data; to discuss the possibility of replacing the ID number with random sequence of digits (without reference to sex, name or date of birth) or substantially restrict the usage of the ID number; and to renounce the compulsory publication of the ID number in mass media.
The full text on the research into privacy violations will be available in Publications section.