Internet

Posting photos without consent

A person initiated proceedings before the Commission due to the publication of his photographs without his consent on one of the web pages of an entertainment and marketing nature that publishes photographs of the night life in several cities in the country. The person contacted the email address listed for contact on that website and requested that the photos be taken down, but did not receive any response to their request. In this case, it was about a domain that is registered abroad, but the administrator of the website performs the processing in the Republic of Macedonia. The directorate takes all appropriate measures and the photos were removed during the procedure.

Identity theft online

One of the more current cases is the case of online identity theft. On one of the pages with an entertaining and marketing character, a user profile was created, that is, personal data was used to create a profile without the person’s knowledge and consent. These websites operate on the principle of creating user profiles where people register by entering personal data in specified mandatory and voluntary fields. In the specific case, his name and surname, photographs, data on gender and age, eye color, height, weight and place of residence were published without the consent of the person. This domain is registered in the Republic of Macedonia and the person requested that the fake profile be deleted, but his request was not acted upon. After the actions taken by the Directorate, the fake profile was deleted during the first contact.

Misuse of password

Another reported case similar to the previous one is the report of a person who created a user profile and published his personal data and photos on the page with a domain registered in the USA, and whose password to access the profile was misused and changed, so that content was published on the profile that was seriously violated the person’s privacy. The directorate does not have the authority to initiate proceedings against this controller, but as an authority that protects the privacy of all citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, it immediately addressed the portal team and the profile was immediately deleted.

Creating fake profiles

Also, as one of the most common cases of misuse of personal data is the creation of false profiles on Internet portals, through which the creators of these false profiles communicate with other persons, presenting themselves in the name of the concerned person. In the past period, the Directorate acted on several such complaints, for fake profiles of famous people from the Republic of Macedonia. These profiles were created on portals that are not registered in our country and that do not fall under our legislation, however the Directorate, as an authority that protects the privacy and personal data of citizens, contacted the support teams of these portals and the profiles were removed from their websites.

Compromising video material

In the past period, the Directorate received a complaint from a person about a violation of his privacy and personal data on a portal dedicated to video materials. Namely, on behalf of the affected person, someone uploaded compromising video material – a clip, through which the honor and reputation of the person included in the video is violated. The same submitted a complaint to the Material Removal Directorate, which in turn, acting similarly to other cases, submitted the same to the portal’s support team. In response, we received a detailed procedure for deleting the specific video material, which must be performed by the concerned person himself, as his personal data is required to be entered. All this is stated in the conditions and procedures for using this portal, in the privacy protection section.

Email password stolen

Similar to the above-mentioned case is the case when a person submitted a complaint about a stolen password to an electronic address. The Directorate could act up to a certain point, following the instructions of the portal, however, the procedure had to continue with the provision of personal data and an auxiliary electronic address through which the portal’s support team would contact the person concerned. However, this case was also successfully resolved and the specific email address was deleted from the internet portal’s database.