Bulgarian Expats Ask Damages from Sofia for Data Leak

Bulgarians, who live abroad and were affected by the blunder committed by Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry, which in the wake of the October presidential elections published their names and addresses in Bulgaria, are asking for compensations.

They have organized themselves via the Facebook social network with the idea to seek serious damages and settle out of Court with the Ministry, the Bulgarian "24 Chassa" (24 Hours) daily writes Tuesday.

In the beginning of October, Bulgaria's Foreign Affairs Ministry made public nearly 37 000 permanent addresses in the country of Bulgarian voters residing abroad, by publishing them online. It admitted the blunder and deleted all personal data, but the latter was accessible for many hours.

The expats say this makes them an easy target for theft and robberies, and they now have to shell more cash for insurance and security for their Bulgarian homes.

The Commission for Protection of Personal Data started a probe over the internet leak of personal data of Bulgarians, who registered to vote abroad. The deadline of the probe was October 21, but "24 Chassa" cite their own sources, saying it concluded last week.

According to the Commission, the Ministry had violated the Protection of Personal Data Act, but quickly realized the mistake and deleted the lists. The Commission claims that there weren't any screen shots of the names and the addresses, thus they have decided to not fine the Ministry.

Such screen shots, however, are available on the site for investigative journalism bivol.bg. "24 Chassa" say they have found them and vow to give them to the Commission in order to have it reexamine their conclusion.