Albania - Chinese facial recognition project in Tirana
What Happened
In 2022, the Albanian government partnered with Chinese state-linked technology companies to install an advanced, AI-driven facial recognition and smart surveillance system across the capital city of Tirana. The system integrated hundreds of high-definition cameras with centralized control databases. Human rights and data protection groups raised severe concerns regarding the opaque nature of the contract, the potential transfer of Albanian citizens' biometric data to foreign servers, and the lack of independent oversight to prevent the system from being used for political surveillance.
How MEG 1 would have acted
The biometric surveillance system represents a high-risk cognitive and informational tracking vector. Under MEG 1, mass real-time biometric surveillance without explicit consent violates informational sovereignty and public safety.
MEG 2 Analysis - Legal Framework
Agent level: N3 (individualized/advanced) - mass metropolitan surveillance and biometric tracking system; high individuation and tracking capacity of specific citizens.
Cause (6.1):
(a) system defect - design flaw in the biometric model that allows unauthorized data transfer to foreign servers (security and privacy defect).
(c) potential illicit hijacking of control - the risk of system control being hijacked by foreign or state-linked entities through backdoors in the software.
Attachment of liability: The Albanian public operator is fully liable for the data privacy violations; the technology provider shares liability if they built unauthorized data transfer backdoors (6.1a).
Procedural Mechanism
6.2 (architectural human confirmation): Biometric identification and tracking of specific citizens in public spaces must require strict, independent judicial confirmation before execution.
7.1 (independent forensics): All access logs to the biometric database must be recorded in an unalterable, independent ledger to prevent insider abuse and unauthorized searches.
9.4 (least privilege): The system's unrestricted access to the real-time biometric data of millions of citizens violates the principle of least necessary access.