The message received by a mother from Banja Luka, whose baby died after birth, expressing support for her as new parents on behalf of the city, is one of the latest examples of the abuse of personal data such as phone numbers being used for political and marketing purposes, which can have serious consequences for the mental health of individuals whose privacy is violated.
Ana Kotur-Erkic lost her baby eight months ago. She lived only three days. While she was collecting documentation for the baby’s burial, she found out that she has a legal right to maternity allowance, since she gave birth to a live child. She contacted the City Administration of Banja Luka and decided to accept the allowance. Recently, she received a message from an unknown number that disturbed her.
“We are proud of the fact that Banja Luka can be by your side in all important moments, especially in moments when you fulfill your role as a parent. Support for women in labor is just one of the important policies that we have implemented in our city because Banja Luka is a family,” the message reads.
Kotur-Erkic says that, as a parent who lost a baby, the message offended her and reminded her of political slogans.
Support for women in labor is provided by the City of Banja Luka, whose website lists the procedure for sending requests to the Department of Social Activities, as well as information on the number of approved grants. The number of the Department to which Ana gave her contact when sending the request is not the same as the number from which she received the message.
In this department, they deny that they shared the phone number.
Banja Luka lawyer Aleksandar Jokic says that a phone number can be personal information, especially in a situation where it is linked to someone’s name if they are a postpaid user.
Commercial misuse of personal data
Using a phone number, without the consent of the owner of that personal data, can lead to extreme political and commercial abuses, explains Jokic.
“There can then be a much greater abuse of personal data, such as giving the opportunity to send advertising materials, this is somewhat interesting from a commercial point of view because many companies pay for such services to a large number of people,” says this lawyer, Detektor writes.
E.Dz.
