BRATISLAVA, May 24, (WEBNOVINY) — Prime Minister Iveta Radicova is appealing to state-run organizations and self-governments to fully cooperate with the Statistics Office of the Slovak Republic in the population census, informed the Press and Information Department of the Cabinet Office on Tuesday. The Prime Minister met with the head of the Statistics Office Ludmila Benkovicova to discuss the 2011 Census of People, Houses and Apartments. Radicova also filled out the census papers with the unique identifier code.
As the statement of the Cabinet Office further stated, the census is important not only for acquiring a detailed picture of the state of society, but also in view of Slovakia’s obligations toward the EU. As the Cabinets Office emphasized, the census is being carried out in all European countries and in all of them it is necessary to deal with personal data to a certain extent. “While in Slovakia every person is given a unique identifier code, in other countries the forms include names and surnames or even a personal identification number,” the Cabinet Office explained. Secure handling of the personal data is a fundamental condition of the census, which is why the prime minister appealed to the director of the Statistics Office to protect the data resolutely, thus preventing any doubts.
According to information spread via the Internet and social networks, the Statistics Office will be able to connect the forms with concrete people thanks to the unique identifier code attached to each form. The Statistics Office of the Slovak Republic denied these allegations, saying that the identification code is only a means of preventing duplicate count. The connection of a concrete person with the identification number will be only temporary. Head of the Statistics Office Benkovicova added that the code is no novelty, and the Collection of Laws already contains information about the code. The code will be removed from the forms in time, and the forms will be destroyed in line with applicable laws. Moreover, the data is protected by law.
SITA
