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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
If you use banking or digital services, you should minimize the amount of your personal data that the bank or any other financial institution receives. In other words, provide the minimum amount of personal information, emphasizes Olga Drachevskaya, lawyer, CEO of the international law firm INCOLANS, on air of Ukrainian Radio. She adds: “Every app on our phone is like the spy of another site, server, or mechanism that can be used against you.”
The lawyer advises not to download apps that are not installed, not to answer phone calls if you understand that it is not the bank, not to grant access to the mobile phone, accounts, not to allow children to download any apps, games, or monitoring levels. They may contain information that criminals will use. Be responsible for your security, phones, gadgets, information, and do not use third-party help that may only harm you in the future, concludes Olga Drachevskaya.
Era of digital possibilities
What are digital human rights?
We live in an era of digital possibilities, digital obligations, and digital life. Every day each person uses electronic gadgets, we face the need to provide our personal electronic data. The bank collects data about what we buy, in which stores, what we use, how we pay. The banking system and the bank as a whole collect all necessary information for its processing and security.
Because the bank must conduct financial monitoring to see exactly how you received funds, how you spent them, on what things, and whether you have legitimate grounds for it. Accordingly, this entire database accumulates. And in the banking system it is digitized and stored subsequently.
Any electronic and digital payments are not only accumulated but also gathered in an electronic database. Every electronic platform collects all data about users daily. We give consent, which we do not fully read or understand, to what exactly consent on the use or storage of our electronic data we are granting.
These electronic, financial platforms, banking system, any other company, medical, the electronic system “Diia” digitizes all information about a person, stores it, and subsequently uses it, in accordance with current Ukrainian legislation and ratified international agreements implemented on Ukrainian territory. Therefore any information that is in your smartphone and the consent to its processing that you provide is stored, used, and accumulated.
Any app that asks for your consent to receive and store this information uses your personal data. If you use any app, you are obliged, not only entitled, to familiarize yourself with exactly what information you provide, who must necessarily store it, how it will be used, and how it will be disposed of subsequently. This must be understood.
Because people, when they give their consent, sometimes do not understand that we have the right to contact the company or state body that stores our personal data for its disposal. And they are obliged to fulfill this request and to dispose of it.
Pursuant to the current legislation of Ukraine, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Law of Ukraine on Personal Data Storage, any company that asks for your consent to receive, use, and store your personal data is obliged to respond to your written, electronic appeal in the app:
1. what exactly information they have stored before your consent;
2. who exactly bears criminal liability for the misuse of this data;
3. how long this information will be stored;
4. at your request to respond regarding the disposal of this information and its non-use after your official request.
If you officially addressed any app, any state body with a request regarding the disposal of your personal data, no one has the legal right to tell you that your personal data will not be disposed of. That would be a violation of the law. If you receive such a response, you may contact a lawyer or free legal aid, who has opened a criminal case against this company or responsible person.
Security depends on you
Does the state have the right to store this information?
Does the state have the right to store information if you gave consent to store this information? But you have the right to file an official request specifying what information the state body stores, who uses it, and which individual is responsible for its use. Currently there is a very negative situation in the country regarding fraud. We understand that there is a leak of personal data coming from state services and banks that trade this personal data.
Criminals have official information about your accounts, savings, mobile phone numbers. And the more your personal data is stored in financial-institutional state bodies, the greater the possibility of fraudulent actions. Therefore it is necessary to minimize it, do not grant consent. Because a bank or another state or non-state institution will not store your personal data if you have requested disposal or did not consent. The less opportunity to obtain your personal data, the less possibility for criminals to use your personal data.
If you use banking or digital services, you should minimize the amount of your personal data that the bank or any other financial institution receives. Make a request and have clear information about who uses your personal data, who stores it, and who bears criminal liability for illegal use.
This needs to be controlled: more control, more requests – less opportunity. This must be minimized. Use broader and stronger passwords, if it is a banking system, electronic login system, the same mobile apps, mobile devices, more digitizing and complicating passwords before entering bank accounts, do not let children use your smartphones, phones if you use any digital services.
Under apps there is a fraudulent scheme that is configured on your smartphone, and your smartphone has direct access to bank accounts. And these criminals can use them. Access to your phone and your child’s work account should not be allowed. Apps can carry the login password to your accounts and use this opportunity. Not only to obtain your personal data but also to directly access your bank accounts. This security depends on you.
In Ukraine, unlike the EU, you give consent to everything. People, not reading the apps, contracts, answer “yes.” But this is wrong. It is manipulation. The bank is obliged to request only the information for a specific type of your personal data.
There are vulnerable elderly people who, in an emotional state, can reveal both card number and code, can transfer money if official persons contact them by phone as they think. Therefore we are very responsibly obliged to treat the disclosure of their information, personal data. And thereafter to pay attention to those around them, vulnerable elderly people, who do not always understand who they are speaking with and may provide information to a person who in a phone conversation presents themselves as a bank employee.
The only way to protect yourself is to give minimal information
How secure are state registries today?
In Ukraine the debtors registry is open. Ukraine is a leading state in digitization, protection. We have very good IT services, law enforcement agencies that monitor this. But today we are experiencing an era of technological progress. And what exists today does not mean that tomorrow or in a week it will not be hacked, unlocked, or that some mechanism will be invented to extract these personal data and criminals could use them.
Therefore saying that a person’s personal data is stored in state applications with hundred percent safety is wrong. And any person who insists that there is hundred percent safety or guarantee is not true, because technologies rapidly advance. Our only possibility is to give minimum information, apply the maximum possible security measures, not to use uninstalled apps, not to answer phone calls if you do not understand that it is the bank.
Even if it is the bank, it will by no means ask you for your card number, account, security code, or additional information over the phone. A bank employee will invite you to a bank branch for further communication. Use highly graphical codes, digital, letters, in writing, any other values, do not give access to your mobile phone, mobile accounts, allow children to download any apps, games or monitoring levels.
In these programs there may be information that criminals will use. If you have any questions, immediately call the bank, contact the hotline. Or, if possible, go to a bank branch and provide information. If a critical situation occurs and criminals have drained funds, you immediately call the support, security.
Bank security blocks funds within five minutes. Criminals cannot use them. If you have already transferred money, criminals will not have time to withdraw or transfer it. But this is time that the security takes. A service investigation will be conducted. And within three to five days these funds will be returned to your bank account. If you call the next day or after several days, the likelihood that bank security will respond is minimal.
“Every app on our phone is like a spy for another site.”
Social networks, Telegram, WhatsApp, other messengers.
In Ukraine the issue of protecting personal data is clearly regulated. We have a clearly regulated stance on criminal liability for the use, storage in an illegal way of obtaining data. You use communication tools: messengers, email, correspondence, any means convenient to you. Personal, family, work chats. And the state guarantees security in your personal and professional life in communication. But the guarantee of security and the application of security are different things. In practice we encounter that data from messengers are hacked, information is obtained and downloaded, and it is used later.
But here are two questions. First, was this information obtained by someone illegally. And where exactly was this information used. If your personal data, photos, correspondence, documents or any private correspondence has been obtained and later used, you must clearly fix where your personal data was used.
For example, distribution in the media, your photos were posted. You must photograph and fix exactly the account of use, so that later you can go to court about illegal use and storage of your personal data. And it is very important to document exactly where your data is used. In practice this is very difficult, because using your personal data, even if it was fixed, you will have to consult an expert. An expert must provide an expert conclusion. These are your costs, this is expensive.
Expert opinion from 5 to 50 or more than thousands of hryvnias. Then you must go to a lawyer. The lawyer must draft a lawsuit. In court, you must apply and the court will consider your claim. This is expensive, long, and already depends on your representative, on a professional lawyer, whether you will obtain a positive result or not. Therefore at present saying that we are safe is not accurate.
Our phones are not a safety zone. They are a zone of danger. Because even if you download a flashlight app, you are given a list of permissions and access to your phone’s features. If you download a flashlight app on your phone and you are asked for your geolocation or access to photos, this is inappropriate, wrong. And you are obliged to give a categorical reply that you do not permit. And this app will not gain access to your data anymore. Why does this app need your photos, geolocation, access to other phone functions? You must categorically withhold consent and deny this app.
But we do not read at all, give consent to everything, and then face big problems. So the phone is a zone of danger. We must realize this now. Every app on our phone is like a spy for that site, server, or mechanism that can be used against you. Therefore my personal recommendation is to keep a minimal number of apps.
Do not store on your phone intimate data or photos, minimize storage of personal data, passport photos, codes, property ownership documents or any other documents you need, medical cards or any diagnoses you do not want anyone to obtain. Do not download apps that raise suspicion, ask for information that does not correspond to their function.
Do not give consent, do not download, do not apply, and treat the storage of your data responsibly so that later you do not incur financial additional obligations, so that you do not spend money on expert conclusions, do not contact lawyers, court, and wait for a court decision for years.
But if the lawyer did not do the job well, or the expert conclusion does not correspond, you may simply not wait for it. Do not contact people who are considered specialists at sales points who recommend helping to download some app. Responsibly treat your security, your phones, gadgets, information and do not use third-party help that may only harm you in the future.
Courts have significantly changed their position regarding digital evidence
How much have court practices changed regarding use of evidence such as photos, social network information, confirmation in messengers of some information.
Courts have significantly changed their position regarding digital evidence. And now courts not only attach, study, but also decide, if you have a criminal case and investigators conduct covert investigative actions, they have the right to access your phones, devices, they can digitize all your messages, even if they were deleted, provide these proofs to the court. And courts take these proofs into account when formulating the legal position and deciding the case on the merits. So all your correspondence, even if deleted, can be restored and used against you.
If a person leads a public lifestyle, you can in court provide this information through photos and videos from social networks. And the court when reviewing a motion to involve evidence will consider whether to include it. But this will be up to the court to consider, weigh the evidence, and then the court will determine its legal position and, when issuing a decision, take into account the evidence. If a person leads a social life—an open page—then later they may claim that these photos were obtained illegally or used illegally—that is not true.
If you are a public figure, you publish everything publicly, then this is evidence that can be used against you. And if you claim you have no funds while living a luxurious life and you do not pay child support to your child, this legal position will be supported in court. And now there are many resolutions on the merits and positive decisions that people are misled.
There are video evidence, photo evidence, we use them. According to the Law of Ukraine on Advocacy and the Bar, we have the right to involve them. And we do. And it is correct. In Ukraine, if this was obtained illegally, illegally obtained correspondence, this evidence is inadmissible and will not be taken into account. Any photo you use or post on your social networks, any correspondence, threats spoken in a phone mode that you recorded or sent to another person is proof. It is your violation.
Therefore to say that you said something, threatened another person and are not guilty, you will not be able to say this now. To say that you were in a state of affect or did not understand what you said – no, that is already passé, this manipulation will not pass. If you are a capable person, if the court in court did not rule to restrict your capacity, you bear full responsibility for your actions, words, and deeds.
If you threaten a person, be aware that if the person turns to law enforcement or the court, you will bear responsibility for these threats. Even if you are a man or a woman, brother or sister, mother or child, and you say you were emotionally unstable – this does not pass. A digital record is a full-fledged piece of evidence that will be used against you in criminal proceedings and in court.
Regarding disclosure and balance of responsibility.
In Ukraine we are just gaining momentum. Later this will be applied and practice will develop. To say that you should rely on law enforcement and the bank security system or on any other state mechanisms regarding the protection of personal data is possible. But everyone must treat the provision and use of their personal data responsibly. This is currently the most important.
In the future we will clearly implement our legislation to European standards, normalize it. But this requires time. In one or two years we can receive information, observe how our judicial system will adapt in terms of applying liability for the use of personal data.
I cannot say that it will be changed, because at present there are many laws, regulations, and there is already a regulatory framework, but it is in the adaptation stage; it will be adjusted, and we will have quite serious arguments and a mechanism to protect when our personal data is violated.
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