Romania failed to include statistical processing of personal data on the list of derogations from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when transposing the new rules into its national legislation, and this may block the activity of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), local Profit.ro reported.

Only the processing of personal data for scientific or historical research purposes are exempted from the GDPR rules in the national legislation implementing this regulation. On the other hand, the processing of data for statistical purposes was not included on the list of derogations.

To solve the problem, the INS initiated a draft amendment to Law 190/2018 on the application of the GDPR, in order to also exempt from this regulation the processing of personal data for statistical purposes. This change would allow the national statistical system to continue its collection and processing of personal data.

The law applying in Romania the new GDPR rules was signed by president Klaus Iohannis in July this year. A series of last minute changes had been introduced in the law during the parliamentary procedure, including the one allowing parties to process data without the express consent of the person concerned, according to Profit.ro.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com