(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

After the decision at the end of last year when the Bulgarian Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) annulled article 5 of the national legislation that implements the Data retention Directive, new initiatives by the Bulgarian authorities raise concerns in relation with data retention.

Thus, in 2009, only a few days before the Parliamentary Transport and Communications Commission meeting, a proposal for changes in the Digital Messages Act was submitted by the Interior Ministry, copying the Data Retention Regulation, including the articles abolished by the SAC.

Several civil society NGOs, including Electronic Frontier Bulgaria and the Association for Electronic Communications, alarmed the media and met Members of the Parliament just to explain what the situation was.

At the meeting of the Commission it became clear that the Interior Ministry has submitted a new proposal with many other dangerous issues:
- It is not clear if the information can be used and processed only in case of severe crimes;
- Data from communications should be kept for 2 years;
- There are no guarantees for the deletion of the data;
- It is not possible for the citizens to see what kinds of data are being kept and who and for what purpose is using them;
- There is no punishment whatsoever for misuse of these data.

The text was approved by the Commission after an hour of senseless discussions with most of the "against" arguments disapproved. Now, the final decision remains will be taken by a plenary meeting of the Bulgarian Parliament.

Electronic Frontier Bulgaria started a campaign against the new provisions, joining the protests in Sofia and Varna and participated in all media coverage for discusssions on the hot data retention topic and its problems.

Fight for Rights and Differences - What is Going on with the Internet Bugging (3.02.2009)
http://www.bogomil.info/int/fight-for-rights-and-differences-%E2%80%93...

Digital rights facts from Bulgaria 2008 (23.01.2009)
http://bogomil.blogactiv.eu/2009/01/23/digital-rights-facts-from-bulga...

Bogomil Shopov: Fighting for digital rights in Bulgaria and beyond (27.01.2009)
http://www.internetsansfrontieres.com/2009/01/bogomil-shopov-fighting-...

EDRi-gram: Bulgarian Court annuls a vague article of the data retention law (17.12.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number6.24/bulgarian-administrative-case...

(thanks to Bogomil Shopov - Electronic Frontier Bulgaria)