People Posting your photo on social networking sites

doughnut

Does this bother anyone else? but i really hate it when people post photos with me in them onto their social networking sites like bebo or facebook. More than that i have a new baby niece and i think i'd craic up if someone posted her photo on the internet too. I know her parents wouldnt be in favour of it too much either.

do this annoy anyone else? I hate the lack of control about it too. We were out in a local pub at lately where my partners from and there were local girls around taking photos etc and i know we'll be in the backgrounds of some of them and i could look as rough as anything in them and i'd bet my house on it that those photos are on their bebo sites now.

should it not be illegal? i understand if you sit in for the photo you are perhaps giving someone permission to do what they like with the photo

Paulw

If you're in public then, for the most part, you have no specific right to privacy (that includes children as there is no distinction in law for this), and therefore anyone can take your picture.

Thankfully taking photos is not illegal.

Thirdfox

Unless photography is forbidden in a private place (pub, your own home, shopping centre etc) then people have a right to use your image in a non-commercial way. One exception is the use of imagery for art - in which case they can sell photographs of you or your niece if they so wish (as long as they do not make it appear that you are endorsing any product).

As for should this be legal - I am a law student and a keen photographer. So I think people should relax less about a pictographical representation of reality (if you look "as rough as anything" then a photo of that reality is just that...a photo of reality.)

If anything, I find it disturbing that photography is being clamped down upon for fears of paedophilia and terrorism. See example below (London Met police ad)



To add though - I believe the EU has stated (in the Princess Monaco case(?)) that if you have a reasonable expectation of privacy then others may not photograph you. An example would be someone taking a photo of you in a public toilet, or if someone uses an ultra-telephoto lens and climbs on a tree to look over your hedge and into your house etc.

Similarly if a photographer is harassing you then they can be prosectued for harassment. But if a group of girls are taking photos and you happen to be in the background then I do not see much legal redress, except that you could inform the proprietor that you do not wish to be disturbed by the other patrons of the pub. Management could revoke the license for the girls to be there but solely at their discretion unless the pub has a "no photography" rule.

Oh and it will be very difficult/impossible to ask the girls to delete their photos or to have it removed from facebook/bebo.

So the general rule is - in public, be aware that others can see you, and take photographs of you and act accordingly.

seamus

Identification I think is important here. Although you have no right to demand that incidental photos of you (i.e. where you're not the primary subject) are made private, afaik you have the right to not be identified in these photos through whatever means.

Facebook in particular allows someone who's been named in a photo to remove their name from that photo without the owner's consent.

maidhc

seamus wrote: »

Identification I think is important here. Although you have no right to demand that incidental photos of you (i.e. where you're not the primary subject) are made private, afaik you have the right to not be identified in these photos through whatever means.

I have never heard of such a right. Pray thee tell.

Identifying a person in a photograph, even if it is incriminating, can hardly be the subject of any proceedings.

dermot_sheehan

A photograph of someone's face is "personal data" under the data protection act 1988 as amended.

So therefore the requirements of that act regarding collection, processing, rectification apply. In particular the requirement that it be collected for a specified, legitimate, lawful purpose. The data subject, in addition to any other remedies he has for breach of this principle, can demand erasure of the data if any of these principles are breached during collection.

If a person's face is blocked, it is no longer personal data, and these onerous requirements no longer apply.

maidhc

gabhain7 wrote: »

A photograph of someone's face is "personal data" under the data protection act 1988 as amended.

So therefore the requirements of that act regarding collection, processing, rectification apply. In particular the requirement that it be collected for a specified, legitimate, lawful purpose. The data subject, in addition to any other remedies he has for breach of this principle, can demand erasure of the data if any of these principles are breached during collection.

If a person's face is blocked, it is no longer personal data, and these onerous requirements no longer apply.

Yeah, but if we assume a person puts a picture of someone else on facebook that just falls within the exemption in s1 of the act regarding the use of data for recreational purposes.

dermot_sheehan

maidhc wrote: »

Yeah, but if we assume a person puts a picture of someone else on facebook that just falls within the exemption in s1 of the act regarding the use of data for recreational purposes.

Not according to the ECJ.

Case C-101/01 Criminal proceedings against Bodil Lindqvist

Our man in Havana

I take form that a person can demand a newspaper cannot print a picture of a persons face?

dermot_sheehan

All the data protection act does is give a right of rectification and a right of erasure if data was collected unlawfully or for an illegitamite purpose.

Journalists in addition have the section 22a defence
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2003/en/act/pub/0006/sec0021.html#sec21

maidhc

gabhain7 wrote: »

Not according to the ECJ.

Case C-101/01 Criminal proceedings against Bodil Lindqvist

So we are all data controllers if or when we tag people on facebook? Maybe...

s7 of the DPA also introduces a statutory tort, but from my experience it is difficult to invoke as you rarely could claim any damages. If anyone ever gets damages for breach of privacy in Ireland please let me know.

Tom Young

Indeed - I have heard (and listened with interest to someone I know, who has said) that the DP review group founded by the DOJ is not really in a position to reform matters.

How on earth can one show damage!? In my view where a data breach occurs res ips should apply, e.g., bank loses laptops, well there you go!

Similar to Defamation the necessity to show damage is limited.

I will only know if the Kenyan Lottery fleece my bank account some night when I am on a street in town and my bank/ATM card is spat back at my in a manner similar to projectile vomiting!

Tom

PS: I couldn't care less about policy considerations, but the reality is that's why that section is limited to my mind. Even basic contract breaches are tiresome to bring before the courts.

amdublin

doughnut wrote: »

i have a new baby niece and i think i'd craic up if someone posted her photo on the internet too. I know her parents wouldnt be in favour of it too much either.

Why?

doughnut

i think its because i am a really private person, i hate the way people just go on to bebo and facebook to see photos of people and its just not my thing. If any of my friends have photos of my in the backgrounds of their pictures i ask them to take them down.

As for my little niece, I can't explain it, its a personal thing i suppose

Catmologen

doughnut wrote: »

i think its because i am a really private person, i hate the way people just go on to bebo and facebook to see photos of people and its just not my thing. If any of my friends have photos of my in the backgrounds of their pictures i ask them to take them down.

As for my little niece, I can't explain it, its a personal thing i suppose

You can remove the tags on the photos yourself alright, i think the photo is property of Bebo/Facebook once uploaded.

amdublin

doughnut wrote: »

i think its because i am a really private person, i hate the way people just go on to bebo and facebook to see photos of people and its just not my thing. If any of my friends have photos of my in the backgrounds of their pictures i ask them to take them down.

As for my little niece, I can't explain it, its a personal thing i suppose

You'll have to ask people to stop taking photos of you full stop. The person who takes the photograph owns the photo, not the subject (you).

If you are at an event where there are lots of photographs being taken (for example a wedding) do you go seek out anyone who may have "background" photos of you who may show to them to other people?