Company fined 30,000 euro for posting video in which faces could be seen on Facebook

It is increasingly common to see videos circulating on social networks of fights, falls, mockery, and the like, but even though the intentions of posting such content might not be malicious or with criminal intent, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) does not ignore this type of behaviour that can affect a person’s reputation.

A media company has been fined 50,000 euro – 30,000 being the final agreed settlement – by the AEPD for failing to comply with the regulations.

They published a video on Facebook in which a group of three men and a woman were seen attacking another man who was lying on the ground. In this recording, several of the participants were recognised.

The AEPD considered that, in this case, the processing of the images, within the framework of freedom of information, was excessive because said content had no public interest as the faces of the participants did not provide added value.

And this situation “could have been resolved with the use of technical procedures to prevent the recognition of the people involved in the fight, such as, for example, the pixelation of faces.” After all, the people who appeared in the video were anonymous, so their fundamental rights had to be protected.

And even the Constitutional Court ruled that anonymous people must be granted a higher level of privacy.

And the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) of February 19 concluded that for the matter to be considered of general interest, it will be so not only for the person who intervenes, but also for the matter to which it refers.

In this case, they were not facts of public relevance.

And in this case, in accordance with article 4.1 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the physical image of a person is personal data. In this way, its inclusion in web pages, forums, publications, which identifies or makes a person identifiable, involves the processing of personal data.

The infringement was based on article 5.1.c) of the aforementioned regulation, which refers to the “principles relating to treatment”.

This is not an isolated case. A company that organizes children’s parties were compelled to pay 10,000 euro for publishing photos of minors on Instagram.

The legislation does not only apply to companies, but also to individuals.

At the end of August, the AEPD fined a citizen 10,000 euro for recording and widely disseminating on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube a person in a state of intoxication in which his face was perfectly recognised.

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