Article 37 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia says:
Everyone shall be guaranteed the safety and secrecy of personal data. Without consent from the person concerned, personal data may be collected, processed and used only under conditions specified by law.
Protection of data and supervision of the work of information systems in the Republic shall be regulated by law.
The use of personal data contrary to the purpose of their collection shall be prohibited.
The Croatian Act on Personal Data Protection (Official Gazette No. 103/03, 11806 and 41/08) has been promulgated on the grounds of the Constitutional provision related to personal data protection.
This Act regulates personal data protection of natural persons and supervision over collecting, processing and use of personal data in the Republic of Croatia.
Besides the above-mentioned Act there are also two following regulations:
- the Regulation on the method of maintaining records on personal data filing system and the form of such records (Official Gazette, No. 105/04) and
- the Regulation on the manner of storing and special measures of technical protection of the special categories of personal data (Official Gazette, No. 139/04)
The Republic of Croatia as Council of Europe’s member is party to
- the Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data (Convention 108) and to
- the Additional Protocol to the Convention 108 related to data protection authorities and international data exchange.
The implementation of the previously mentioned legal acts of the Council of Europe has been enabled thanks to a adoption of the Act on confirmation of the Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data (Convention 108) and of the Additional Protocol to the Convention 108 related to data protection authorities and international data exchange (Official Gazette, No. 04/05, International Agreements).
The Act on Personal Data Protection has been harmonized in all important questions with the Directive 95/46/EC on the Protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.
