On Jan. 30, the Bulgarian government promulgated Decree 40, which, among other things, allows the security services to gather from each internet user the data about who they have written to, who is on their contact lists, what instant communication agents they are equipped with, when they used them and the precise manner of using them. Institutions attributed the act to the requirements of Directive 2006/24/EC, but the majority of internet users in Bulgaria interpreted it as an encroachment on their civil liberties. The civil initiative Electronic Frontier published on the internet a petition (BUL) against the decree, signed by over 1150 people already, and a number of Bulgarian bloggers put banners to support the campaign on their blogs. Read more here. 

Decree Number 40 on data-retention from the citizens’ electronic communications, adopted and developed in Bulgaria by the Interior Ministry (IM) and the State Agency of Information Technologies and Systems (SAITS), gathered about 200 people for a discussion on March 19 at Bulgarian news agency (BTA). Bulgaria’s ombudsman Ginyo Ganev, the Social-Democratic Forum and the civil initiative “Electronic Border” organised the public discussion called ‘Rights and security – the new risks’. Ganev started to check the texts of the data-retention decree after he was asked to do so by civil organsations who said the decree violates basic human rights and freedoms. According to Ganev the personal data planned to be collected by the state should be presented only to the relevant bodies but only in specific cases. He said the data-retention decree violates art.32, par.2 and art. 34, par.2 from the Bulgarian Constitution, as well as art. 41, according to which…

A protest against Directive 2006/24/ЕC, which allows traffic data to be gathered for every single Internet user, was held yesterday (07.02.2008) in Sofia. The demonstrators made it clear, that retention of e-mail correspondence, Internet traffic and any similar information, which is to be kept for 1 year, is directly violating the rights, laid in the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria and it cuts across all moral principles. The demonstrators were also against the requirement, which states that the user should be identified by his/her IP address, together with other information such as personal citizen number, address on which the service is being used and the user’s full name. Data retention gives the State enormous powers. With this tool it is able to watch and control its citizen’s personal lives, and this is in violation of the fundamental right of inviolability of personal life and protection of the secret of…

Do you appreciate your freedom? How much? Do you want the police to watch closely everything you are doing on the Internet and to record it? What are we talking about? The regulation, stipulating that the agencies will be able to collect information from every user on the Internet, was published in the State Gazette yesterday. The information may of any kind: who has written to whom, what contacts one has, means for instant messaging, when they have been used and how and many other. Data Retention is no solution! If you want to express your opinion and that you appreciate your freedom, do come to the protest called A Free Lunch. Most protests are held during the evenings, but institutions are asleep in the evenings, so you can dedicate your lunch break to Internet freedom. Free Lunch 1 When: Thursday – 07 February 12.30 to 14.30 Where: In the…