2007

Excerpt from AIP annual report Access to Information in Bulgaria 2007:

In 2007, the AIP team provided legal consultation in 24 cases related to violations of the right of personal data in 2007. As the main characteristics of these cases we can point out the persistent practice, which has been criticized in preceding reports, of data controllers collecting more data than is necessary to carry out their activities. In many cases, official IDs are requested and held without specific reasons.

In 2007, some cases were again referred to the AIP office with questions about the legitimacy of CCTV recordings of certain public places such as streets, official buildings and others without clear signs indicating such surveillance.

A persistent problem is the publication of various kinds of lists containing personal data. For example, in March we were informed about the practice in the Regional Court of Varna where letters reporting "no criminal record" were published on a notice board where those documents were accessible to everybody. Those letters contained personal data, such as personal identification numbers, names and addresses. In order to find their own letter, citizens had to check all the others. A similar case is that of a citizen complaining that initiators of free medical examinations for the early diagnosis of breast cancer required that all patients provide their personal data. They then publicly posted the examination schedule, which contained the names, addresses and identification numbers of women who would receive free medical services.