Andorran Data Protection Agency Proposes Key Amendments to Penal Code for Digital Privacy

The Andorran Data Protection Agency (APDA) has submitted a series of observations and proposed amendments to the Sindicatura del Consell General regarding the government's draft qualified law reforming the Penal Code. The agency views these changes as essential to strengthen protections for privacy, personal data, and digital identity amid evolving technological risks.

While praising the draft for its recodification efforts and sensitivity to technological advances, the APDA calls for targeted updates. A key proposal involves revising the identity usurpation offence to explicitly cover digital acts, such as the unauthorized creation, use, or control of accounts, profiles, credentials, signatures, certificates, images, voice recordings, or other identifying digital data. It also seeks harsher penalties when such impersonation employs technologies that enhance plausibility or hinder author identification.

The agency further recommends a new general aggravating circumstance for crimes facilitated by automated systems or simulation, alteration, or synthetic generation technologies, including artificial intelligence. This transversal measure aims to address cases where these tools boost deception, complicate detection, or amplify harm.

On communications privacy, the APDA proposes redefining illegal wiretapping as "interception of communications" to better protect electronic exchanges via messaging services and similar platforms. The updated wording would encompass capture, access, monitoring, or recording of digital communications while safeguarding rights to defence and evidence in legal proceedings.

Additional suggestions include broadening safeguards against non-consensual distribution of intimate or manipulated content, even in closed groups; updating terminology for illicit access to automated personal data; linking specially protected data definitions to current data protection laws for greater coherence; adding provisions on falsifications in certifications, valuations, and traceability for high-value goods like jewellery or art; and imposing criminal liability on legal persons in certain privacy-related offences due to inadequate oversight.

These amendments, the APDA argues, would enhance the Penal Code's technical precision and adaptability without altering its core structure, equipping it to counter both current and emerging digital threats. The Sindicatura will forward them to parliamentary groups during the legislative process.