THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN ALBANIA. ITS COMPLIANCE WITH EU GDPR AND CURRENT CHALLENGES.

Abstract

The right to privacy is paramount human rights nowadays. A special attention has been paid by the European Union in the respective field of data protection which with the development of technologies has faced significant challenges. Specifically, Albania is a candidate state in the European Union since 2014. The right to privacy in Republic of Albania is enshrined in the Article 35 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania, while the law governing the data protection is the Law no. 9887 “On the Data Protection”. However, in Albania a series of leaks that resulted in serious breaches of data protection happened from 2021 - 2022, events that further fueled suspicion regarding the cause of these occurrences. Is it the weak legal framework or is it the weak implementation of laws? Consequently, the thesis aims to answer these questions by studying the development of the right to privacy in Albania during the transition to a pluralistic democratic country and its implementation in the Albanian legal framework. Since European Union is a structure that has dealt with data protection challenges and Albania has an obligation to harmonize its laws in accordance to EU “acquis communautaire” an analysis of the Albanian legislation is conducted in comparison to the European Union GDPR. The study displays a strong legal framework in Albania regarding the protection of the right to privacy and quite a satisfactory level of harmonization. However, the differences diminished the Albanian’s level of protection in a digitalized era, a gap that will positively be solved with the implementation of the New Draft Law that Albania will adopt. Regarding the breaches in Albania, issues are concluded regarding the implementation of laws and the lack of professionals in the fields of security and preventive mechanisms provided by law. In this case the comparative studies with the European Union situation have underlined ongoing issues even in the European Union therefore the breaches and cyber-crimes in Albania are not a direct result of weak laws or weak implementation but they adhere as a global challenge of this technologized century.