In 2021, Albanian authorities were authorised to tap the phones of 3,535 people and in very few cases did the courts reject such requests, according to data from the General Prosecutor’s Office.
Data published by BIRN found that in 2018, the courts authorised 3,063 wiretaps against 4,168 people, and in 2019 some 2,714 wiretaps against 5,062 people. A study from Friedrich Ebert Stiftung published in 2018 also found that between 2010-2017 the number of people tapped had increased.
Concerns have been raised by experts that authorisations were handed down with little justification. Furthermore, little information was provided regarding the effectiveness of such activities in the subsequent investigations.
Not only have the number of wiretaps remained high, but the government tried to increase its ability to eavesdrop.
In 2020, Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government sought to introduce changes to legislation on state police that would allow the police to wiretap, track, photograph, and surveil citizens without a warrant from the Prosecutor’s Office.
This kind of police surveillance may last up to 3 months, and be extended once for another three.
The proposed law was struck down by President Ilir Meta and the constitutional court.
Albanian Government Considered Buying Hacking Group from NSO Group Competitor in 2014
The government also looked at other means of spying on citizens. It considered buying software from The Hacking Team, a competitor to NSO Group who have made global headlines over allegations they hacked journalists, politicians, and activists on behalf of global governments.
According to leaked emails via the Wikileaks database, the Albanian government held at least two meetings in Tirana with The Hacking Group.
The correspondence between the Albanian government and The Hacking Team began shortly after Prime Minister Edi Rama came to power in 2013.
Leaked emails show that the company discussed meetings and the demo with a contact called Altin Hoxha. It’s not clear which department he worked for.
Hoxha told them: “This system is really what we are looking to implement.” He noted that they were coming to the end of the budget year but that they hoped they could implement it in 2014 as long as “negotiations about options, functions, usage, prices, guarantees, and training” could be given.
This was for a system called Galileo. The Hacking Company described it as a “remote control system designed to attack, infect, and monitor a huge number of target PCs and smartphones in a stealth way.”
They added that the devices could monitor Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and more. The software would enable them to gather information such as Skype data, chat history from Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber, keystrokes, files, screenshots, camera snapshots, and to eavesdrop on microphones.
The company was also in contact with a man called Ermal Dautaj, believed to be working for the State Intelligence Services. In one email, Dautaj suggests setting up a meeting with “the Minister or with other people (you know who I am talking about)”.
Representatives from the company gave demos of the software in February and possibly November of 2014. The Albanian government said they were interested in the software but that it would have to be factored into the next year’s budget.
It seems that the deal didn’t go through as in 2015, The Hacking Team reached out to Hoxha and offered another meeting in Tirana. No further email correspondence was included in the leaks.
