Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association(GYLA) took a strong exception to recent reports of intimidating and abusive calls. The people who are participating in the ongoing protest against the foreign law bill are being targeted by the callers. According to the GYLA this is a serious matter of privacy and data breach.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (G YLA)said that there could be involvement of the state agencies behind the recent wave of abusive and intimidating phone calls. The caller from the other side is mainly targeting individuals who are protesting against the foreign agent’s law. Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association further alleges that this is a clear violation of the processing of personal data.
The Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association issued a statement on May 8 to criticize the incidents. It is to be noted since the protest took a violent turn the individual as well as their family members are receiving phone calls from foreign and Georgian numbers. After answering receivers are verbally abused and intimidated.
GYLA further said that “Taking into account the frequency of these calls coupled with the systematic nature and the shortlisted recipients of the calls selected by a specific feature is the indication that the personal data is being misused for the vested individuals.
The GYLA while urging the Inspector of the Data Protection Service, Lela Janashvili, and other persons responsible demanded that they must take the necessary measures to fulfill the obligation imposed by the law to study the issue. After the allegation by the lawyer association, the representative of the Personal Data Protection Service said that it is studying the legality of the processing of citizens’ telephone numbers.
They further added that “under the provisions and power of the agency we are investigating the matter seriously.” Nobtlay the capital city of Tbilisi is witnessing a large scale of violence against the foreign agent law being termed as the “Russian law” by the protestors. They said that if the law is passed in its present form it will stifle the voices of media and civil organizations.
