Personal Data Protection: the European Court of Human Rights Practice and the Russian Legislation

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the impact of ECHR judgments on Russian personal data protection legislation and the extent of their implementation in the legal system of Russia. In order to achieve an aim of detecting the interrelation between ECHR directions and Russian law, as well as of suggesting improvements of the letter one, the following goals were reached: analysis of theoretical aspects of personal data protection both in European and Russian concepts including the definition of personal data and criteria of its protection adequacy measurement; the analysis of the ECHR practice regarding Russia; detection of contradictions and their roots. The methodological basis of this project mainly includes historical, legal, system-legal, technical and formal legal methods as well analysis, synthesis, generalization, classification and grouping. As a result of the research, differences between European and Russian data protection concepts were defined, namely, the focus of Russian law on information itself rather than on its subjects' interests as well as the prevalence of identification criteria over the sensitivity element (the latter is specific for Europe). Moreover, most of the cases illustrating the discrepancy between Russian law and ECHR approach, reveal an imbalance of public and private interest in Russian norms. Thus, the author not only suggests particular improvements to the Russian law but also underlines the existing tendency of government's role strengthening in data protection sphere as well as the necessity of finding mechanisms that would guarantee a stronger digital economy balance. This paper might serve as a useful tool for further research on the topic as well as for practicians looking for an overall information on ECHR criteria of personal data protection sufficiency and the understanding of personal data illustrated by courts.