Bulgaria's Parliament approves eavesdropping act

Author: Nadezhda Chipeva

 

Author: Rene Beekman Date: Wed, Feb 17 2010 3 Comments, 3529 Views

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On February 17 2010, Bulgaria's Parliament approved the second reading of amendments to the Electronic Communications Act, but only after serious concessions.

The version of amendments approved by Parliament's internal security and public order committee on February 3, which left in the possibility for police to use access to communication data for crimes that carry sentences of less than five years, including causing death by negligence, threatening an officer, threat of murder, soliciting prostitution and providing premises for prostitution, acquisition or distribution of pornographic material, vote-buying, illegal border crossings, was not acceptable for a majority in Parliament.

At the proposal of opposition parties and the Blue Coalition, the amendments were revised to include only serious crimes carrying a minimum jail sentence of five years, and computer crimes, Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik said.

Earlier, the Interior Ministry had given up its demand to have permanent, direct access to personal communication data.

From now on, mobile phone and internet operators will have to supply requested communication data within 72 hours and not, as Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov wanted, in two hours.

The Interior Minister, or his representative, would have the right to set a different deadline, shorter or longer, in exceptional cases and depending on the severity of the case.

Personal communication data that had been accessed by the Interior Ministry would have to be kept for six months, after which the data was to be destroyed if it was not used in a court case or investigation.

A parliamentary committee was to oversee the procedures under which personal data was requested and accessed, and ensure that civil rights were protected.

The Commission for Personal Data Protection (CPDP) would report annually to Parliament and to the European Commission.

During the debate, questions were raised about a change in wording that was introduced just days before amendments were sent to Parliament.

Accusations from non-governmental organisations and privacy advocates was that the changes were simply a backdoor for the Interior Ministry to introduce the disputed  permanent, direct access to personal communication data.

Deputy Interior Minister Vesselin Vouchkov said that particular text referred to actual wiretapping in which content of communications was tapped, not access to communication data. The wiretapping interface existed for 10 years already, but operators had been under no obligation to upgrade the interface and keep up with new technology.

The accepted amendments would make operators responsible for upgrading of the wiretapping interface and to keep up with new technology, Dnevnik said.