State Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications Tatjana Matić, has said regarding the affair of “Cambridge Analytic” that is the mass complaints about the social network Facebook, that it allowed the sale of private information on its users for the needs of a political campaign, that this case confirms the need for digital literacy and systemic education of safety and protection of privacy on the Internet, not only in the Republic of Serbia, but globally.

“Abuse of personal information the users upload on the Internet can be legally treated, but the key is the prevention which means that first of all the users can protect their own privacy. That will be made by reading the conditions before accepting the conditions to use the applications and programmes they are interested in. Since, it is likely that the applications and programmes ask and get the permits from the users to have an access to their information”, warned State Secretary.

She has pointed out that a priority of the Republic of Serbia is to protect children on the Internet, since they are the most vulnerable user group, but that the activities for development of the information society of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications are directed also towards other groups.

“Programmes and rules made by the Ministry encourage digital literacy among all Serbian citizens, not only for their safety and protection, but for encouraging the beneficial use of new technologies in education, business, and communication. Nevertheless, online protection is the first step towards the purposeful realisation of digital potentials”, concluded Ms Matić, reminding that the citizens can get informed about these topics on the portal Smart and Safe, as well as by a free phone call to the number of the National Contact Centre for Online Safety of Children – 19833.