The right to private and family life and the need for protection against the digital environment

Abstract The right to private and family life is difficult to define, since it encompasses a wide range of overlapping and interrelated rights that protect the individual’s freedom from state interference. This means that the individual has the right to live free from state interference, placing the individual in a higher position compared to the state in the enjoyment of this right. The right to private and family life is protected both at the international level by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and at domestic level starting with the Constitution of the Republic of Albania and the legal framework. This right may be limited under specific conditions for the interest of others, provided that the interference is not arbitrary or unlawful. The article deals with the development of the right to private and family life in Albania at the constitutional level, at different periods of time, highlighting the range and the progress of this right compared to international legal framework. The article highlights one of the aspects of the right to private and family life such as data protection, on the challenges faced by the development of technology and the digital environment. The analysis is accompanied with the jurisprudence of European Court of Human Rights which elucidates the engagement undertaken by Albania as a contracting party of the European Convention to raise the standards of protection of human rights.