The Costa Rican Constitutional Chamber decided through a resolution to all 15 appeals that were filed due to the failed application of the questionnaires of associated factors in the FARO tests for primary school.
Its determination leaves no room for doubt: “the Court concluded that there was a serious and grotesque injury to the right to privacy, protected in article 24 of the Political Constitution.”
According to the Chamber “the application of the tests to obtain personal data occurred from a position of power and against a vulnerable population. In addition, they affirmed that the data was obtained through a mandatory test, imposed on people in the educational process who require special protection from the State by virtue of the provisions of paragraph 3.1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and ordinal 51 of the Political Constitution”.
Not repeated
The Ministry of Public Education did not think much about it and shortly thereafter sent a statement stating that it coincides with the ruling of Chamber IV and that for that reason “measures have been taken so that, as stated by the Chamber, the situation provoked for those questionnaires it is not repeated”. Indeed, the constitutional court ordered measures to be taken to prevent this from happening again and declared other petitions that included the remedies to be dismissed.
The MEP avoided processing the information and delivered the questionnaires to the Second Judicial Circuit of San José to respond to the precautionary measure issued by the Administrative Contentious Court, through the resolution of November 14, 2021. Also the entity, by resolution of the Higher Council of Education, did not apply those questionnaires in the FARO tests for secondary school that concluded today.
On the other hand, an internal investigation was ordered, “as well as the review and elaboration of the security protocols for the management of databases as suggested by the Inhabitants’ Data Protection Agency (PRODHAB).”
