The Albanian Ombudswoman, Erinda Ballanca said for Euronews Albania that there is a violation of human rights as long as the personal data haven’t been used for the same purpose citizens made them available for.

“The right to protect personal data is a right that in comparison to the case at hand, there doesn’t need to be a concrete violation, but the very collection and processing of them constitute an offense,” – said the attorney.

She stated that there hasn’t been a reaction from the public advocate yet, seeing that there needs to be a concrete evaluation of the situation first. Most importantly, Ballanca clarified that until 2008, the protection of personal data has been under the jurisdiction of the public advocate, while in 2008 and forward, it is under the authority of the Commissioner for the Protection of Personal Data.

As was explained by the public advocate, the database of personal data doesn’t only constitute a violation but what is most illegal is what is found within this database, which is the collection and production of sensitive information about citizens’ political preferences.

According to her, compared to the personal data we add on our social networks, the law institutes that this kind of sensitive data should have never under any circumstances been collected or processed.

Ballanca also emphasized that the collection of personal information isn’t legitimate, not even for electoral purposes and she was skeptical regarding the pretenses of the Socialist Party regarding this database as something created through their years of work.

“The law requires a subject, before doing something like this (to collect personal data) it should get an authorization from the Commissioner, who should provide the necessary indications about how this data should be collected,” – said attorney Ballanca.