Whatsapp how much with almost 32 million users in Spain (2 billion worldwide) and a 85% of Spaniards affirm that they communicate through this network vseveral times a day. This huge number of users means that the traffic of messages that are sent and received reaches huge numbers.
That enormous communicative activity not always legal and there is a large amount of user behavior that violates the law and exceeds the limits established by laws such as Data Protection or Intellectual Property, above all.
These are four of the irregular behaviors described by Eduard Blasi, collaborating professor at the Law and Political Science Department of the UOC and an expert in data protection:
1. Send screenshots of another person without their consent
The Data Protection Law is applicable when data is disseminated over the Internet, either openly or to a large number of recipients.
Keep in mind that the screenshots display conversations that can directly or indirectly identify a person, which could lead to a data protection violation.
The regulations in this field apply not only to identified data —such as name and surname, DNI or telephone number—, but also to identifiable data, that is, those that allow us to know who is behind the conversation without making a disproportionate effort.
The reality is that, in most cases, the dissemination of screenshots of WhatsApp conversations, whether through groups or other social networks, makes it relatively easy to identify the participants thanks to the context information, their names in the chat or even the data exposed in the conversation itself.
In addition to the breach of data protection, depending on the type of conversation, the affected persons could claim compensation for damages, for a possible injury to their right to honor or privacy.
And, beyond this, in the most serious cases, if a private conversation of third parties is broadcast, a crime of discovery and disclosure of secrets could be incurred.
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2. Disseminate images, audios or videos of a third person without their consent
The Spanish Agency for Data Protection has already imposed economic sanctions on individuals in different circumstances for disseminating audiovisual content from third parties without their permission. For example, for recording a police action and broadcasting it without hiding any data or, in more serious cases, for sharing intimate photographs of a third person through WhatsApp.
In addition, the affected person could claim compensation for damages, for a possible injury to their right to honor, privacy or their own image.
In the most serious cases, as happens with screenshots, if private photographs, videos or audios of third parties are disseminated, a crime of discovery and disclosure of secrets could be incurred.
3. Create a professional WhatsApp group without asking for authorization
To add a person to a professional WhatsApp group, it is necessary to ask for prior consent. There is a recent example of a case in which the Spanish Data Protection Agency imposed a sanction on a sports club that had created a WhatsApp group and added a former member.
4. Create a corporate WhatsApp group with members who do not know each other
This is behavior that can be equated to sending an email without a blind copy. The reason is that, by adding these contacts, there is data that is inevitably exposed – such as photo, first name, last name and mobile phone number – and this violates confidentiality.
In this case, when it comes to a corporate group with members who do not know each other, a distribution list should be chosen, instead of a group.
In another sense, we must also underline that there are many behaviors that are committed using WhatsApp and that can turn us into victims. For this, it is recommended to follow these tips:
–Not to follow untrusted links.
– Erase messages that reach us from unrecognized users
– Leave of the groups that we no longer use and delete them.
– Discard messages with very attractive information, that invite us to take instant action and that do not offer us time to think about the consequences
–Check the news that reaches us through messages that have been forwarded multiple times
– Ignore the messages that warn that a certain service that we have will stop being active if we do not make a new subscription
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