The cooperation of the Personal Data Protection Office and the Ombudsman

President of the Personal Data Protection Office Mirosław Wróblewski began a series of meetings and talks with the heads of constitutional institutions and important state offices. His first visit was in the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, where he met with the Ombudsman Marcin Wiącko and the leadership of the Office. The subject of the talks was close cooperation between the two institutions and joint initiatives for better protection of the fundamental rights of the individual in our country.

- “Data protection touches almost every aspect of our lives. That is why the cooperation of the Polish SA with other constitutional institutions and state bodies is so important and necessary. Together with the Ombudsman, we want the protection of individual rights in Poland to be more comprehensive and increasingly effective. Although we are independent institutions with slightly different competencies, many problems are common, and in solving them we can support and complement each other, and together ensure that every citizen in our country has a sense of legal security, knows how we operate, how we take care of his/her affairs on a daily basis”, said Mirosław Wróblewski, President of the Personal Data Protection Office.

Each year, the two offices receive tens of thousands of complaints from citizens, cases are reported which simultaneously affect many areas of the functioning of the state, local government institutions or private economic entities. Unfortunately, it emerges from them that there is often a situation where, in a dispute with an office or company, an individual is in a weaker position, lacking the necessary legal knowledge, "feistiness" and sometimes the necessary financial resources. Many citizens feel discriminated against, helpless, ignored. With all these phenomena, the Polish SA and the Ombudsman try to fight, taking up individual and systemic cases, responding to letters, intervening in specific institutions, as well as addressing demands for changes in the law to the relevant authorities. That is why cooperation and exchange of experience between these institutions is so important, if only in terms of improving the process of receiving, handling and investigating complaints. Also the operation of infolines, which in both institutions are very popular and play an important role in providing legal information.

The President of Personal Data Protection Office stressed that good interaction between constitutional institutions and state bodies is the best way to ensure that our state not only respects the rights of citizens, but is friendly and open to their needs, so that we can also join the best European models and standards in this regard.