Prosecutor to probe Asimakopoulou’s alleged GDPR breach
The Athens Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday launched an investigation into the leak of an unspecified number of emails of Greeks living abroad which came into the possession of New Democracy MEP Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou.
The preliminary inquiry ordered by the head of the Athens Public Prosecutor’s Office, Antonis Eleftherianos, will investigate the possible violation of the law on personal data and official confidentiality. Prosecutor Giorgos Noulis will head the investigation.
On March 1, numerous Greek voters took to social media to say that a surprise email from Asimakopoulou had landed in their inboxes soon after receiving an email from the Interior Ministry informing them that postal voting for expatriates will apply in the next general election and accused the conservative MEP of breaching the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by sending unsolicited election campaign emails to private accounts without their permission, as the law requires. They also asked how she came into possession of their email addresses.
Asimakopoulou has refuted claims of breaching data protection laws and has provided nebulous, sometimes contradictory, explanations regarding the source of the addresses used for the mass emails.
