Bulgaria Sees 100% Y/Y Increase in Personal Data Abuse Complaints in 2011

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry will be issued a penalty statement for a personal data leak committed in connection with the end-October local and presidential elections, the Commission for Personal Data Protection (CPDP) announced on Friday.

In early October 2011, the Foreign Ministry published on its website about 37 000 permanent address registrations of Bulgarian voters residing abroad.

The expats were infuriated by the blunder, saying that it made them an easy target for theft and robbery and that they had to shell extra cash for insurance and security for their Bulgarian homes.

The CPDP launched a probe into the matter, the results of which were announced in end-November and reiterated during Friday's presentation of CPDP's annual report for 2011.

During Friday's press conference, the personal data protection watchdog said that it had received a total of 458 complaints, tip-offs and inquiries in 2011.

According to the report, in 2011 the authority conducted over 1200 probes, issued 44 acts establishing personal data offences and imposed fines worth BGN 198 000.

The CPDP collected BGN 43 500 from payments on penalty statements.

Veneta Shopova, CPDP Chair, told journalists that the number of complaints about personal data abuse had risen by 100% from 2010.

She explained that the trend could be attributed to the increased awareness of citizens, rather than an increased number of infringements.

Shopova pointed out that the biggest number of complaints had been filed against companies in the telecommunications sector and the media, healthcare institutions, and providers of banking and insurance services.

The CPDP Chair said that the violations usually involved a failure to update existing data or a misapplication of regulations on storing personal data.

She added that telecommunication companies most often supplied data to debt collection agencies without the due authorization, while media outlets were in the habit of showing documents containing personal data, for instance medical expert statements.

CPDP member Krasimir Dimitrov commented that serious personal data offences were usually committed by multinationals with representations in many countries.

He added that it was unacceptable for Bulgaria to punish a certain personal data breach with a fine of BGN 50 000, provided that the penalty for the same offence amounts to an estimated BGN 500 000 in Spain.

"Human rights protection is universal," Dimitrov insisted.

CPDP members boasted that Bulgaria was participating actively in the formation of the new European policy on personal data protection.

They made it clear that the new EU legislation in the sphere was expected to introduce uniform penalties for abuse of personal data.

The members of the watchdog said that the common European framework would also provide for "the right to be forgotten".

Under the new regulations, consumers would be able to force companies to delete personal data or any other sort of embarrassing or inaccurate information published online, the watchdog's representatives informed.

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