Protection of personal data in civil legal relations: national legal provision through the prism of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, both in Ukraine and throughout the civilized world, the development of information technologies significantly intensified, there was a transformation of society’s ideas about the value of information, and the degree of state intervention in this sphere changed. The intensity of transmission and processing of information due to continuous technical development has influenced the growth of needs, possibilities of transmission and processing of personal data. More and more spheres of social life require obtaining information about the person from the person in both an overt and unspoken way, and new technologies expand the actual possibilities of satisfying this need. In this regard, issues of personal data protection, the state of its legal protection, the practice of such protection in Ukraine, taking into account the experience of the EU countries, the practice of the ECHR, are becoming relevant.The national legal provision of personal data protection in Ukraine in view of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights was researched in this article, as well as the features of the implementation of personal data protection in modern conditions of martial law. The hierarchy of sources of personal data protection regulation and their presence at all levels of legislation is emphasized. There was characterized the constitutional level of legal protection of personal data, represented by a set of norms of the Constitution (Articles 3, 17, 32, 34, 55, etc.) and decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine as acts of negative law-making in the field of personal data protection. The regulation of personal data protection is characterized by some norms of the Civil Code of Ukraine (Articles 286, 301, 301, etc.) A review of the legal protection of personal data by a special law and other legislative acts, as well as at the sub-legal level, was carried out. The international legal mechanism of personal data protection is briefly described. The features of personal data protection in the conditions of martial law in Ukraine were determined. The description of the practice of the ECtHR as an element of legal protection of personal data is given and the key positions of the ECtHR in this area are highlighted in the cases «Leander v. Sweden», «Rotaru V. Romania», «Catt v. United Kingdom», «S. & Marper v. United Kingdom», GSB v. Switzerland» etc. The main areas of improvement of the existing legal protection of personal data in Ukraine were determined: improvement of the legal definition of the concept of «personal data» in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation,; consolidation of the principles of personal data protection at the level of a separate norm in the special legislative act; establishment of special requirements for protection, processing of “sensitive data”; regulating the collection of cookies that contain personal data, etc.