Warning: Charitable Initiatives are Accompanied by Personal Data Collection

The Personal Data Protection Agency informs: “In recent days, various users have drawn the Agency's attention to the fact that charitable, educational, and other initiatives carried out or to be carried out by different organizations are mainly accompanied by the processing of personal data (sometimes even sensitive data, such as health or social status, etc.), including collection, storage, and so on. Sometimes, databases of beneficiaries' personal data are created.

In this regard, we kindly ask you to pay attention to the issue of personal data protection, not to neglect the importance of protecting people's personal data, especially personal life and other sensitive data, and to ensure that data is processed legally and for specific purposes, suitable and necessary to achieve the stated purpose, in the minimum quantity and timeframe necessary for achieving the purpose, obtaining the beneficiaries' consent for the processing of their personal data in accordance with the Law on Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Armenia (except where the processing of data is directly provided for by law), and to take adequate technical and organizational measures to ensure the protection of personal data (databases) from illegal interference, including illegal leakage.

We also remind you that when processing biometric or special category personal data, it is necessary to notify the Personal Data Protection Agency accordingly about such intention. Biometric personal data refers to information characterizing the physical, physiological, and biological characteristics of a person. Special category personal data includes information related to a person’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership in a trade union, health status, and sexual life.

The conditions for obtaining consent for the processing of personal data can be found in Article 10 of the Law on Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Armenia. You can find a sample notification regarding the processing of biometric or special category personal data here. For any inquiries, you can also contact us on non-working and holiday days by writing a message to the Agency's Facebook page.