People may be monitored in Hungary more strictly than before

The Hungarian State wants to monitor its citizens more exhaustively in the future – at least this is what is stated in the new bill tabled by the Ministry of Interior on Monday. Among others, the bill proposes to change the act regarding the citizen’s personal data, thus records made by certain bodies could be stored in a central place, reports inforadio.hu.

According to the bill, the records of certain bodies would be stored. These are for example the police, the public space control, the passenger transport services, the road authorities and those organizations, which are responsible for road toll. Although the hosting service provider must not see the records, some organizations will be entitled to require data from them.

The reason for requiring data can be:

• prevention of crime
• criminal investigation
• national security
• prevention of terrorism
• organization of transport

If the records will not be used, the hosting service provider will automatically delete them with the help of a special application after 15 days. The government would appoint the organization that would serve as the hosting service provider in a regulation.

According to the bill, the accommodation providers must record the guests’ first and family names, date and place of birth, sex, citizenship and their mother’s name. Furthermore, they not only have to ask for the data of the guests’ ID but also make a copy of the documents and record the dates of arriving and leaving.

The bill may also settle by what system the providers must transmit the data. If the required system is not available for the provider, the provider has six months – from the notice – to build it up. If a provider does not fulfill its obligation towards national security, the trading authority may tax a 1,600 EUR penalty.

The modifications were explained by the Ministry of Interior as follows: currently, it is not regulated that either foreign or Hungarian tourists must give their personal data in the case of registered accommodation. Moreover, the accommodation providers do not have the right by law to ask for it.

Among the proposals can be found another one that asks the mobile operators to inform the citizens by text messages in case of an emergency at their own charge.

ce: ZsK

Source: inforadio.hu