Data protection, which also includes the right to one's own image, sometimes produces strange results.

Because now the Hanover Administrative Court has to deal with a lawsuit that is second to none: An SPD local association is defending itself against a warning from the state data protection officer because a person complained that he or she was clearly visible in a group of people in a photo at a public event.

The occasion

A pedestrian traffic light system was built in Barsinghausen, a town in Lower Saxony in the Hanover region. It has been in demand since 2015, and since November 2018 it has also been in Barsinghausen on Wilhelm-Heß-Straße.

The Barsinghausen SPD local association was also happy about it and posted two photos of the inauguration of the traffic light on a Facebook fan page. So far, so normal - if one of the photos hadn't shown a group of people gathering outdoors for the occasion...

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The lawsuit

In the photo with the group of people, individual people could also be clearly seen. However, one of the people didn't like this, which is why she asked the local association to delete the photo because the SPD had published this photo without her consent. At the same time, the person contacted the Lower Saxony state data protection officer.

Administrative data protection proceedings were then initiated against the SPD. She agreed to delete the photo from the Facebook page without acknowledging a legal obligation, which is what happened. Nevertheless, a warning was issued against the SPD, which could well cost money .

But the SPD local association doesn't want to put up with that: a lawsuit is now being filed against this warning !

The right to your own image

In principle, not just since the GDPR, the so-called “ right to your own image ” applies, which means that you are not allowed to make another person's image public without their consent.

A widespread misconception, which the SPD local branch may have been subject to, is that this does not apply to groups of people. Although this right does not apply to large events and larger gatherings, it does apply to smaller groups, but this must be considered on a case-by-case basis.

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Conclusion

One may now argue about the background of the person's complaint. It wasn't a political event that might have put the person in a bad light, but just the harmless inauguration of a traffic light system. Maybe the person also has something against the SPD and therefore didn't want to be seen in their photos, you can't know.

However, the reason is irrelevant, because in principle the person was right:
the local association should have anonymized the faces of the group of people. It could also have been regulated more peacefully, for example by the local association anonymizing the faces and re-uploading the picture instead of immediately involving the state data protection officer.

Whether a warning had to be issued because of this is another matter and will be decided by the court .

Article image: Tero Vesalainen / Shutterstock

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