We often hear now about the protection of personal secrets; there are also sanctions against the publication of information containing personal or family secrets. So let's figure out what is included in these two concepts, because these secrets are an element of the right to respect for private life, for violation of which the law provides for liability.
There are no clear definitions of the secrets in question in the legislation. But based on judicial practice, the following conclusion can be drawn:
What happened
It all started with a post by Ufa activist Elena Malafeeva. She wrote that “V.V. Bargan" is the owner of a "concentration camp for innocent animals" called Dobrota LLC.
As evidence, Elena attached photographs of mutilated animals and a screenshot from the page of 59-year-old Vladimir Bargan. True, the man in the photograph has nothing to do with Dobrota LLC.
Vladimir Bargan went to court and confirmed that he has nothing to do with the animal shelter. He demanded that the publication be removed because it discredited his name. The plaintiff also demanded moral compensation in the amount of 50 thousand rubles. and 9 thousand as reimbursement of costs for notary services.
Elena Malafeeva stated that she took the information with the photo from a page on VKontakte, which can be viewed by any user of the social network. The court sided with the defendant, because there were no violations in Elena’s actions. “The plaintiff himself posted a photo on his page on VKontakte. At the same time, he did not use the “viewing by a limited number of persons” service,” the court concluded.
In this case, the plaintiff incorrectly chose the subject of the claim and the method of protecting his rights. He appealed to Article 152.1 of the Civil Code, that is, he tried to protect his image. But the defendant legitimately used his photo, since it was posted on the VKontakte social network. By registering on a social network, we grant the right to others to use our photos.
As a method of defense, he needed to file an application for the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation, that is, appeal to Article 152 of the Civil Code.
According to our statistics on civil cases, over the past year, approximately half of the claims filed under Article 152 of the Civil Code were satisfied, that is, the plaintiff had a good chance of winning the case and receiving monetary compensation.
As for protecting your images on social networks and other resources. Before posting a photo, you must carefully read the text of the agreement with the site. When we use one of them, we accept its rules. The overwhelming majority of social networks contain in their rules an indication that the information we publish is publicly accessible. Otherwise, Yandex would be inundated with claims for the use of data, photos, videos, etc. After all, they index data on the Internet and display it in their services. So publishing your photos on open resources is like leaving your car in a dark alley with the doors open and the keys in the ignition. Something is bound to happen.
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Violation of privacy
Home » Compensation and property disputes » Violation of privacy
Every person wants to have a “safety zone” in which he will be ensured personal independence, a state autonomous from the outside world.
The right to privacy provides a sense of security, similar to how property rights provide financial independence.
When a person is not in the service, not at work, far from the public environment, he should be given a certain independence from state and social manifestations.
The citizen himself must, at his own discretion, control how personal information about him is distributed. And if desired, freely stop its spread.
Violation of privacy for this reason is permitted only on the basis of a court decision with an appropriate reasoned sanction.
The basic law of the Russian Federation - the Constitution, by the provisions of Article 56, enshrines the right to privacy, even in conditions when there is a state of emergency.
Violation of privacy in a legal way is possible only in order to fight crime, prevent a threat to the life and health of a person or group of people.
The most common types of invasion of privacy are the following:
- Listening to the phone, reading correspondence - both paper and electronic. That is, interference in the privacy of a person, violation of the secrecy of his personal affairs.
- Publishing for access to an unlimited number of persons information that a person perceives as personal and does not wish to make it public
- Presenting a false, negative image of a person to others. Forming an unfounded opinion about him.
- Exploitation of a person’s name, his appearance in images without his consent, for commercial interests.
Privacy is protected by current criminal law. This blog is devoted to civil law issues, but the topic raised is too important to be left without consideration.
Article 137 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for liability ranging from a fine in an amount not exceeding two hundred thousand rubles to imprisonment for up to five years for violating privacy , depending on the severity of the crime committed.
The law punishes the following violations:
- illegal collection of information about a person’s private life
- illegal dissemination of such information
The information must be a personal or family secret.
There is no official definition of these concepts yet. But existing opinions allow us to define a secret kept by one person as a personal secret. And a secret that is kept by several people related by family relationships as a family secret.
The right to have personal secrets belongs to every person, simply by virtue of the fact of his birth.
Registration of a legal marriage between spouses is the basis for the emergence of family secrets. As well as the fact of family relationships between parents and children.
That is, one person can be the victim of a violation of personal secrets, but several can be victims of a violation of family secrets.
What is privacy information?
Personal secrets or information about private life is information that is relevant to a specific person. For example:
- biographical information and facts
- nationality
- place of actual residence and registration
- medical record and data on previous diseases
- information characterizing family life, hobbies, habits, political and religious views, sexual orientation and preferences
Almost the same list was approved by the Presidential Decree in the “List of Confidential Information” (No. 188 of March 6, 1997).
Personal secrets can also include information about creative hobbies, diaries, and other personal notes.
We are forced to trust some of our personal information to other people, such as doctors and lawyers.
In this case, responsibility for keeping confidential secrets rests with them, in accordance with the professional provisions of the laws on medical and attorney-client privilege.
What is privacy collection?
The collection of information means any method of obtaining it, without the consent of the citizen:
- Eavesdropping with or without technical devices,
- luring out information during a conversation with an informed person,
- unauthorized access to personal documents and records, their copying, theft, etc.
The main feature is obtaining information about a person without his knowledge, and without legal grounds. If the illegal collection of information is carried out through illegal entry into a home, then we are no longer talking about one offense, but about a set of crimes.
What is the dissemination of privacy information?
If illegally obtained information, in any form, is brought to the attention of at least one person, then distribution has taken place.
In turn, public reproduction or demonstration means that access to illegally obtained information was provided not to one person, but to an unlimited number of them, including through the media (newspapers, magazines, television and radio programs).
Concluding this article, it should be noted that a violation of privacy can be committed legally, as a result of collecting information on the basis of the provisions of the law on operational-search activities. In this case there is no liability.
Still have questions? Ask them in the comments, discuss them, recommend them to your friends!
Discussion: 5 comments
- Sergey:
01.11.2016 at 10:39Good afternoon. Please tell me whether it is illegal to collect information about a person through open sources - social media. networks, forums, etc. Those. The information that he himself disseminated about himself? Is it illegal to publish this information? Thank you.
Answer
Evgeny Mazhov:
11/01/2016 at 12:02
Hello. No, collecting such information is not illegal.
Answer
05/03/2017 at 15:02
Hello! Can the following situation be regarded as the dissemination of personal information: when we are not at home, the dog howls periodically, which disturbs the neighbors (I understand them perfectly well, and this issue is being resolved), but the neighbors, in turn, write about it on social networks, and no matter what why, but indicate the full address with a full description of the problem “in the absence of the owners, the dog howls, but it howls constantly.” Having such information, any attacker can open the apartment, I’m not so much worried about the property, but about the dog…….
Answer
- Evgeny Mazhov:
05/18/2017 at 13:12
Hello! Yes, I feel sorry for the dog) In my opinion, no one is preventing you from preparing and submitting a corresponding complaint, to the prosecutor’s office, for example. The motivation is simple - the law provides for a certain list of ways to protect violated rights. In your case, the appropriate method of defense would be for your neighbors to contact the local police officer or go to court. And their actions can be regarded as abuse of rights, etc.
Answer
06/28/2017 at 14:56
Is it an interference in the personal life of a work colleague congratulating her on the birth of a child if I was not informed about this event personally, but learned about it from social networks?
Answer
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If you want to maintain privacy, write about it
The court referred to the Rules of Use of the VKontakte website. If a user posts any information on a social network, he understands and agrees that any user has access to this data.
“The court was not provided with information that on the plaintiff’s personal page there was an indication of established restrictions and privacy rules regarding information, including images, published by this user,” the appellate court noted in its ruling. Now, by the way, Bargan’s page is open and photographs periodically appear on it. There are no posts prohibiting the use of photographs.
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What information constitutes a personal secret?
This information:
- having a personal nature (about relationships, and not necessarily in the intimate sphere, habits, events in life, meetings, views, passions, inclinations, physical disabilities, a criminal record that has already been withdrawn or expunged, mental and other illnesses, etc.);
- the disclosure of which the person considers unacceptable and takes efforts (measures) to maintain secrets.
The secrecy of correspondence and other communications may be a personal secret when the person himself considers certain information secret and cares about maintaining confidentiality. Thus, we can say that the leading characteristic of the concept of “personal secret” is the person’s desire to keep data secret.
From which we can conclude that information cannot be considered a personal secret if:
- the person took action to make the information publicly available, and this was done of his own free will. For example, information was previously published by the citizen himself in the media. In such cases they can no longer be a secret;
- the person will disclose information as required by law. This is, for example, information about the income and property of persons applying for government positions; such information is open.
