The possibility of restricting access to the PESEL numbers of minors

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office has approached the Minister of Digital Affairs regarding the possibility of restricting access to the PESEL numbers of minors.

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office, Mirosław Wróblewski, asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs, Krzysztof Gawkowski, to consider undertaking legislative work on amendments to the Act of 24 September 2010 on Population Registration in order to enable parents or legal guardians to restrict access to the personal identification number (PESEL number) of a minor.

The impetus for this request came from signals sent to the supervisory authority indicating a lack of protection for minors against identity theft, including protection of their PESEL numbers. Furthermore, as early as 2023, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office addressed comments to the Chancellery of the Prime Minister at the stage of reviewing the draft law on the amendment of selected laws to mitigate certain effects of identity theft, arguing at the time that failure to include the possibility of blocking the PESEL numbers of minors would unjustifiably deprive them of the opportunity to benefit from the proposed measures to prevent identity theft, especially since the Civil Code allows minors to perform certain legal acts.

In turn, the Act of 24 September 2010 on Population Registration allows only adults to to request blocking or unblocking their PESEL number free of charge. However, this does not apply to adults who do not have legal capacity or who have limited legal capacity for various reasons. According to the regulations, if it is impossible to submit an application for blocking a PESEL number due to illness, disability or other insurmountable obstacle, the blocking can be done by a representative, and on behalf of a person who does not have legal capacity or has limited legal capacity, an application for blocking or unblocking a PESEL number may be submitted by a legal guardian or curator.

In the opinion of Mirosław Wróblewski, President of the Personal Data Protection Office, the current wording of the Act on Population Registration leaves a significant gap in the protection of minors' personal data with regard to the blocking of PESEL numbers, which should be precisely filled in. This is all the more so because, for example, the provisions of the Passport Documents Act or the Identity Documents Act grant parents and legal guardians the right to apply for an identity card or passport, and in the event of their loss or damage, the right to invalidate them, which is recorded in the relevant register.

According to the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, similar solutions should therefore be applied in the Population Registration Act with regard to the register of PESEL number blockage for minors. The development of regulations ensuring the protection of minors' data is of particular importance in the era of advancing digitalisation and increasingly frequent cases of data theft.

In a letter to the Minister of Digital Affairs, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office also declares his expert support if legislative work on this matter is undertaken.

DPNT.413.29.2025