On November 8, 2023, the Office for Personal Data Protection (ÚOOÚ) welcomed the amendment (the Amendment) to Act No. 300/2008 Sb., on electronic transactions and authorized conversion of documents (the Act), which was published on November 3, 2023, in the Collection of Laws and will enter into force on February 1, 2024. Before the Amendment, the Act mandated that all data box holders, whether natural persons or natural persons running a business, must be listed on a public register, which raised concerns about privacy.  

Notably, the public register included the personal addresses of data box holders and was accessible through an open and machine-readable format, which allowed for unlimited downloading, copying, and use without regulation. In this regard, the ÚOOÚ explained that, following a meeting in April 2023 with the Digitial and Information Agency (DIA), which is the data controller of the public register, the list of natural persons who are not running a business were removed from the public register. At the same time, the ÚOOÚ and the DIA agreed to prepare a draft amendment to the Act aimed at strengthening the protection of personal data.

Further to the above, the Amendment entails a shift from an opt-out principle to an opt-in principle, where instead of automatic inclusion on the list and requiring natural persons or natural persons running a business to request removal, the new approach requires a request for inclusion. Additionally, natural persons running businesses can now request their removal from the list at any time. 

You can read the press release here and the Act here, both only available in Czech.