The right to private communication using telecommunication means: National and international legal aspects of protection

Poltava Law Institute of Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv, UKraine

^* e-mail: Corresponding author: alexpanasiuk.iur@gmail.com

Abstract

Today's challenges dictate the need to strengthen the national and international legal mechanisms for the protection of personal data and the right to private communication. However, considered rights are not absolute. Legitimate restriction of guaranteed rights is possible, since these means of communication are a powerful tool in the investigation and disclosure of hard/very hard crimes, including transnational ones, especially considering the terrorist threats to Ukraine and other European countries. The possibility of restricting human rights, arising from the guarantees enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and consistently enshrined in the ECHR, demands from the state the least compulsory guarantee while interfering with the rights of individuals – to act “in accordance with the law”. Law protection of personal data and right to privacy are researched in the context of peculiarities of conducting investigative (search), secret investigative (search) and other procedural actions in criminal proceedings, which concern access to some telecommunication means (e.g., smartphones). Taking into account different functional purposes of technical means of telecommunication, access and collecting of evidence contained therein, should be carried out on a case-to-case basis, in a different procedural form, considering specifics of telecommunication technologies in each particular case.