As societies rely increasingly on the use of information technology, cybercrime and the use of electronic evidence become challenges for criminal justice authorities and to the rule of law. Article 15 of the Budapest Convention seeks to ensure protection of fundamental rights and freedoms by mandating that each party to the Convention establishes in its domestic law that certain conditions and safeguards are to be applied in relation to the abovementioned procedural powers.
The issue of the protection of personal data in law enforcement operations has become more prominent in recent years as the number of cybercrime investigations, including cross-border ones, has increased exponentially. On the other hand, newer standards of personal data protection (GDPR, modernized Council of Europe Convention 108, etc.) have provided for further guarantees to data protection oversight of law enforcement operations in cyberspace, including criminal investigations. The aspects of human rights and data protection have been highly relevant in the implementation of the CyberEast project, as attested by specialized regional studies on Article 15 and Data Protection in the Eastern Partnership, respectively.
With the Workshop with Personal Data Protection authorities and National Communications regulators on trust and cooperation on cybercrime and e-evidence for the Ukrainian authorities on 15-16 April 2021, the CyberEast project completed the series of similar workshops in the Eastern Partnership region, which started in January 2021. The two day workshop brought together representatives of law enforcement, prosecution, judiciary, data protection community and service providers, as well as civil society organizations.
Below you can check the latest CyberEast reports related to Data Protection, Data Retention and Cooperation between LEA and ISPs:
Regional study on Personal Data Protection aspects of law enforcement action on cybercrime in the EAP region, 2020, September 2020
Data retention in the States Parties to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, September 2020
Cooperation between Law Enforcement and Internet Service Providers against cybercrime, September 2020