Meta and X have not notified Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina of personal data processing to develop AI – Regional supervisory organs to launch joint initiative

Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Serbia, Milan Marinovic, has announced that the companies Meta and X have not notified Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina about the processing of personal data. He said that, with representatives of the supervisory organs for those matters in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, he had established that Meta and the X platform (formerly Twitter) had started processing personal data to develop artificial intelligence, of which the users of their services in the non-EU countries of the Western Balkans had not been notified. He added that the regional supervisory organs for data protection would launch a joint initiative against the companies.

As said in the press release, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Serbia, Milan Marinovic, and Deputy Commissioner Sanja Unkovic, Director of the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information of Montenegro Cedomir Mitrovic and Director of the Agency for Personal Data Protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr. Dragoljub Reljic with their colleagues have express concern over the fact that Meta and X have started processing personal data to develop artificial intelligence without prior notification to the users of their services in the Western Balkans countries that are not members of the European Union.

Also, the representatives have established that these companies have not designated their representative for personal data processing in the Republic of Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which further complicates the protection of users’ rights in these countries.

Exercising the right to protect the personal data of citizens, the representatives of the independent supervisory authorities of all three countries agreed to jointly act towards Meta and X coordinating all the activities they undertake in these cases. This initiative will be open to all other independent supervisory authorities of the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries.

Representatives of all three independent supervisory authorities will jointly address the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the Data Protection Commission of the Republic of Ireland as competent authorities for dealing with these companies in the European Union.

Poverenik za informacije od javnog značaja Srbija

Agencija za zaštitu ličnih podataka i slobodan pristup informacijama Podgorica

Agencija za zaštitu ličnih podataka u BiH Sarajevo

Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Serbia

Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information of Montenegro

Agency for Personal Data Protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Milan Marinović

Sanja Unković

Čedomir Mitrović

Dragoljub Reljić

Meta

X