2008
Excerpt from AIP annual report Access to Information in Bulgaria 2008:
In 2008, the team of AIP provided legal consultation in 23 cases related to violations of the right of personal data protection.
The general overview of the personal data protection practices proves that the old habits can hardly be overcome – as a rule, the data administrators disproportionately process personal data as regards to the aims of the activity they perform. They collect big volumes of data which once collected are held almost forever. In many cases, official IDs are requested and held without specific reasons. For example, in order to be able to shop in the Metro Cash and Carry (“Metro”) Stores, citizens are supposed to obtain a customer card. Such a card is issued after the submission of a big volume of personal data, as well as a digital photo. Another extreme example of an administrator who exceeds its authority in the processing of personal data is the company “Cez Distribution – Bulgaria” JSC. In order to provide its services (distribution of electricity), the company requires that except for a filled blank request form, its customers also submit a copy of the title for possession of the respective real estate. If the property is given for rent, the company requires that the rent contract is presented.
Personal data related cases referred to AIP for legal help have raised some new and interesting questions.
1. Access to personal data of deceased persons
Peculiar is the case of the team of the TV series Otechestven Front who turned to AIP for legal help. The journalists were shooting a documentary about the execution of death penalty in Bulgaria before 1989. In this regard, they wanted to receive a copy of the prisoner’s file of the last sentenced to death whose sentence was executed in Bulgaria.[1]The story tells that the relatives of the deceased received neither the certificate of death, nor the belongings of the prisoner, nor any evidence about when and how the death sentence had been executed. With the help of AIP, and on behalf of the mother of the prisoner, a request was submitted to the Minister of Justice for access to the data. Although the request was submitted by the mother, access was refused and the refusal was appealed before the court.
2. Access to Data about Biological Origin
In 2008, the team of AIP was addressed by citizens who were seeking data about their biological origin. These are adopted persons who do not have information about their biological families. The question regarding the right of information about the biological origin has found different solutions in the European legislation. There is also a court practice by the European Court on Human Rights on the issue. In Bulgaria, there is no legally provided explicit and clear procedure under which adopted children to be able to access data about their biological origin after coming of age. Pursuant to the 2003 amendments to the Family Code (Art. 67b), the adopters or the adopted child of legal age can ask the regional court which have delivered the decision permitting the adoption to provide information about the origin of the adopted person when important circumstances demand it. At this stage, the legal advice which the team of AIP provides in such cases is to apply the provisions of the Personal Data Protection Act which grants the right of everybody of access to their personal data. A possible refusal can be appealed before the Commission for Personal Data Protection.
[1] The moratorium on the execution of the death penalty was promulgated on July 20, 1990 by the Great National Assembly. This moratorium was effective up to September 2, 1998 when the 38th National Assembly with amendments to the Penal Code repealed the death penalty.