STATE REGULATION OF PRIVACY AND ITS PROTECTION IN THE USE OF VIRDS BY POLICE: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE FROM LATVIA AND LITHUANIA

Santrauka

The research analysis covers regulation on both: use of VIRDs and privacy protection in civil, administrative, and criminal laws (if these privacy protection rules could be applicable in the use of VIRDs). This research is focused on use of VIRDs by police in Latvia and Lithuania – legal regulation in both countries and its disfunctions, however, the research includes only general aspects of privacy protection in the use of VIRDs by a Public Police (except for their use against outside threats) as the most directly and extensively touching individuals’ privacy aspects, because such use is widespread, relevant to most of the people as it is used in the everyday practice of the  Public Police in public places. It is necessary to systematically investigate how privacy protection is ensured in particular national jurisdictions in the field of the operation and use of visual information recording devices. Such analysis is relevant because national jurisdictions are constantly confronted with challenges caused by modern technologies (particularly, VIRDs), the disputes concerning their use are only maturing, and new questions of legal governance of VIRDs’ operation and use arise. VIRD in this research means any type of device which is capable of recording video (for example, CCTV camera, dashboard camera) any photographic equipment (such as photo cameras or mobile phones with integrated photo-cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) (equipped with video/photo cameras).