Rama: A phone can no longer be an “unlimited licence” to inspect private life

Prime Minister Edi Rama has spoken about the proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, focusing on how the police and the prosecution will be able to access phone data during an investigation.

Rama said that seizing a phone should not automatically mean the right to inspect all of its contents. According to him, prior authorisation from a court will be required to open, copy or process the data.

“A phone is no longer simply a means of communication. It is the archive of a person’s life — of their communications, photographs, movements, finances and relationships. Therefore, seizing a device can no longer in any way be an unlimited licence to read and view everything its archive contains,” Rama said.

The prime minister clarified that the police and the prosecution will have the right to seize the device, but access to its contents will be subject to a court decision.

According to him, the court will specify the device that may be inspected, the categories of data, the applications, the time period and the search criteria. In urgent cases, the action is to be reviewed by the court within 48 hours.

Rama also stressed that data obtained outside the authorisation will be considered unusable, while materials unrelated to the investigation must be destroyed.

He also addressed wiretapping, saying that only communications related to the investigation should be transcribed, including those that may be in favour of the person under investigation.

“The private lives of people with no connection to the criminal offence cannot become usable material, as an instrument of pressure or as a product for media consumption,” the prime minister said.

The proposed amendments also affect the taking of biological samples and the storage of genetic profiles, which Rama said will be regulated more fully, providing for informed consent or a court decision, the presence of defence counsel, and the mandatory destruction of data following a final acquittal.

The prime minister said the aim of the amendments is for criminal proceedings to have a defined beginning, a clear object and a verifiable end.