Anna Michel Asimakopoulou: Letter to the expatriates about personal data leakage – “Shows” Nikos Theodoropoulos

The MEP sent her a letter to those who had leaked their personal data to her, trying to explain. In her letter Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou admits that there has been a leak of their personal data, for which she “shows” the then Secretary of Greek Modern Greekism, Nikos Theodoropoulos. It also states that the source of their data was the “Remand Archive 2023”, which came into its hands in late January 2024. He says he regrets the concern he caused the outcasts in relation to the security of their personal data and that the name and email was used only once. In detail the letter: In response to your email, I know the following: From 2019 to today, I am an active MEP of the European People’s Party with the New Democracy. Honoring our vote 225.211 compatriots, I gave and continue to fight in the European Parliament on important national issues (State of Law, Migration, Human Rights, Social Welfare, Mediterranean country finance, Greek exports, etc.). In this institutional capacity, I contacted you on Friday 1 March 2024, at your email address, sending you an electronic newsletter (newsletter), entitled ‘100 days before the European elections’. Of course, I did not intend to promote you commercial products or services, such as advertising calls that we all receive daily. My aim was to inform you of the great institutional democratic reform of the epistolic vote, from your place of residence, which will bring you closer to Greece. My communication referred to the sources and terms of processing of your personal data, as they arise from the privacy and personal data protection policy posted on my website (collection and use terms, rights of subjects, non-transmission to third parties, deletion etc.). I also asked you for permission to contact you, during the next period, by showing my views, in view of my nomination for the June 2024 European elections, giving you the right to reject any further communication. As a child and I of the Greek homogeneity, I addressed you, the outlying Greeks, regardless of political and ideological position, as active citizens working and progressing, representing Greece in the country where you live. I wanted to approach you, exercising my right to freedom of expression and dissemination of ideas, enshrined in international treaties (such as Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights), but also in the Greek Constitution, as part of the right to vote and the constitutional mission of political parties. I sent you this newsletter, respecting your right to information and protection of your personal data, which is a right relevant and not absolute, which is weighted and retreated when it conflicts with other fundamental rights such as those mentioned above. I am truly sorry for whatever justified concern, inadvertently, I have provoked you, in terms of the source of origin and processing of your personal data. Their source is the “Remembrance Archive 2023″, which came into my hands at the end of January 2024, in digital form, by the then Secretary of Greek Modern Democracy, Nikos Theodoropoulos, who has today been expelled. Coming from evidence from expatriates collected from the parliamentary elections of 2023, this file contained, exclusively, the following information: serial number of voters, gender, name, maiden name, wife’s name, date, city and country of birth and vote, postal and e-mail address. Of these, it was used on behalf of my political office, on my orders, only your name and email address, once and for all, for the purpose of encouraging your participation in the top democratic electoral process. I also assure you that the information I received does not include VAT, AMKA or any other information from your registration on the platform of the epistolic vote, which, as you know, was later enacted with Law 5083/2024 and the Joint Ministerial Decision that followed. I would point out that the only data I have received from the Ministry of the Interior, at my request in 2019 and 2021, are the electoral lists, public records, as I am entitled, from my parliamentary capacity, under electoral legislation. The above will be demonstrated by the ongoing urgent investigation of the Athens Primary Prosecutor’s Office and the Data Protection Authority, to which the list of recipients of the newsletter was delivered on my behalf encrypted on 15.3.2024, abstaining from any processing. According to the current regulatory framework (General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, Greek implementing law 4624/2019, Privacy Principles Directives) and the judgments of the Greek courts (State Council 1343, 1344, 1345/2022), political communication is not a commercial promotion of products and services (spam), within the meaning of Greek law 3741/2006. On the contrary, because of its nature, as the quintessentiality of democracy, the political dialogue of a candidate with the electorate requires special regulation, which still does not exist in Greece or Europe, since the draft European regulation on political advertising has been under discussion since 2021. In the light of the GDPR, political communication may be carried out legally, (a) either on the basis of the recipient’s valid consent, which in this case does not exist for most of you, except as far as I know personally (friends and known, voters and not, trade unions, political speeches, party sources, etc.), and is already written on my list of recipients, (b) or on the basis of my subjective assessment of my supreme legitimate interest in informing you of the epistolic vote. I have done so in good faith, based on the fact that your information was given to me by the relevant party executive, who participated in information campaigns to our countrymen, and I therefore believed that I would not disturb you, in view of my institutional status and the purpose of our communication, to strengthen your pluralism and democratic participation in the upcoming European elections. Moreover, I knew that, by decision of the Greek Data Protection Authority, candidates of each combination are provided by the Law Club Registers, all contact details of lawyers-elections (names, registration numbers, telephone numbers, postal and e-mail addresses, etc.), for reasons of public interest. That is to inform voters so that they can choose, knowingly, the most suitable candidates in the legal election. Similarly, since my parliamentary term in the EP, I know that the granting of full copies of the electoral lists to parties and candidates of Members applies, for reasons of transparency, to several European countries, such as France and the United Kingdom, under certain conditions (non-commercial use, non-transmission to third parties, short deadline for deletion, etc.). In addition, courts, national and European, as a rule, do not award damages for the moral harm of data recipients, unless they demonstrate which particular damage they suffered from a unique information message. In any case, as a controller, fully satisfying your rights, information, access, opposition and deletion of your data, as provided for in Articles 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 21 of the General Regulation (GDPR), I strongly state to you: (a) the above personal data which were not collected directly by you, had limited access only to my office partners and no one else, (b) the mass dispatch of my newsletter of 1 March 2024, was necessary then, i.e. 100 days before the elections on 9 June, and contained my full data, reference to the processing conditions and allowing you to unsubscribe, (c) the name and address of your e-mail address was used once and only to encourage your participation in the European Elections, while your other information was not processed or transmitted to third parties, (d) in view of your reasonable opposition to the use of your data, I will follow any decision of the Data Protection Authority and will not be communicated to you. After these honest and honest explanations, I think that any concerns about the security of your data must now be eliminated. In conclusion, I would like to point out that I have already assumed the political responsibility that is mine, officially announcing that I will no longer be a candidate with the South West party for the European elections. Finally, I declare to you, in view of my long parliamentary journey, that I am ready to defend my rights from any attempt to draw political, economic or other benefits from this political communication. Respectfully Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou”.