A Dutch grandmother was found to have breached the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) after posting photos of her grandchildren on Facebook and Pinterest without their parents’ permission and refusing the delete them.
The Dutch court outlined that the GDPR does not apply to the “purely personal” or “household” processing of data. However, it was not established what security settings were in place and whether the photos could have been found on search engines. As such, the court was not satisfied that posting the photos on social media constituted “purely personal or household activity” as to do so put them in the public domain where they could be further distributed and used by third parties.
The woman was order to delete the photos as she did not have the parents’ consent, or pay a fine of €50 for every day that she fails to comply with the order. This will cap at €1,000. If she posts more images of the children in the future, she will be fined an extra €50 a day.
In another decision of the High Court of England and Wales, damages were awarded where an uncle misused the private information of his niece and breached her confidence when he posted information on Facebook about her self-harming and treatment for mental health problems.
The court found that, by virtue of the Facebook post, the information had been published directly to six members of the girl’s immediate family and a small number of other readers, all of whom were not aware of the information. The court was satisfied that the niece was readily identifiable from the post and had established that information about her mental health and self-harm had the necessary quality of confidence. The fact that some close friends knew of this personal information was not such to destroy the cloak of confidentiality.
The court awarded £15,000 to include (i) general damages in respect of distress, hurt, feelings of anxiety and embarrassment as well as the girl’s loss of control and autonomy; and (ii) significant aggravated damages.
Click here for the decision in Dutch.
Click here for the decision of the High Court of England and Wales.