New Democracy MEP Anne-Michelle Asimakopoulou said that she had received the e-mail addresses of Greek voters abroad from a party official.
The e-mail addresses came in digital format from New Democracy’s secretary and head of diaspora Greeks, Nikos Theodoropoulos, who was ousted from his post in the wake of the controversy.
The issue raises questions as to:
- who in the Interior Ministry had access to these data and carelessly sent the list to Theodoropoulos?
- any responsibility to be assumed by current Interior Minister Niki Kerameos, who had initially claimed she wasn’t in this post when the leak took place. ?
In a fresh email to overseas voters, Asimakopoulou said the data related to 2023 parliamentary elections and included voter serial number; gender; first and last name; father and mother’s name; spouse’s name; date, city and country of birth; and voting address, postal and electronic addresses, daily kathimerini reported on Tuesday.
The data she received end of January 2024 did not include tax or social insurance numbers or any other information collected from the registration of overseas voters on the postal voting platform, she said.
Stating she was “sincerely sorry for any legitimate concern I may have unintentionally caused you regarding the source and processing of your personal data,” in her latest message Asimakopoulou attempted to justify the sending of the email, claiming it was permitted under a decision of the Greek Data Protection Authority relating to the elections for lawyer bar associations.
“In view of your reasonable objection to the use of your data, I will follow any decision of the Data Protection Authority to delete your data and will not contact you in the future,” Asimakopoulou said.
“After my honest and frank explanations above, I think any concerns you may have about the security of your data should now disappear,” Asimakopoulou’s email concluded.
She did not apologize, though, and she doesn’t appear to have understood any wrong going, several Greek voters abroad noted on social media after having received the MEP’s second e-mail.
A few days after the e-mails scandal broke out, Asimakopoulou said she would not contest for the upcoming European elections.
Meanwhile, the number of Greek voters seeking compensation for the violation of their personal data has surpassed 100.
