Showing WhatsApp conversations between friends is illegal: up to four years in prison

Is there crying out with a person through chat and you decide to share this conversation with your friends to get their opinion and know what to answer. A very common practice among young people, however more risk than it seems at first sight.

“The normalization of this kind of situation is very funny, but it is not good and it is not legal,” said the lawyer Xavi Abat in a Tiktok video, because it would be within his offense of revealing secretsincluded in article 197 of the Penal Code, “with a sentence of up to four years”.

“You may not realize it, but something is very important. Article 18.3 of our Constitution fence like fundamental right to privacy of communication. We would like as little as you say to you a new place it spreads, it’s shared by third parties who don’t know who they are or anything,” explained the lawyer.

he is offense of revealing secrets governed in the Spanish penal codeespecially between articles 197 and 201. This crime covers various actions that involve the discovery of another person’s privacy or the violation of the privacy, without the need for these actions to cause special harm to the person who suffer It is sufficient for the listed acts to be performed for the crime to be considered committed.

The basic type of this crime, according to article 197, is punishable those who capture personal documentsintercept communications or use technical tools to discover secrets or violate another’s privacy without their consent. The penalties for these actions include prison terms of 1 to 4 years and fines of 12 to 24 months. In addition, the same penalties apply to those who, without permission, access, change or use personal data stored in files or records, regardless whether public or private.

In more serious cases, article 197.3 establishes a prison sentence of 2 to 5 years for those who distribute, disclosure or transfer of the data to third parties or photos obtained illegally. If the responsible person is the person in charge of the files or if personal data is used in an unauthorized way, the penalties can increase in prison from 3 to 5 years, according to article 197.4. In addition, if the data reveals sensitive information such as ideology, religion or health, or if the victim is a minor or a person with a disability, the penalties will be further increased.

Article 197.6 contemplates more severe penalties if the acts are carried out by him profit motivesreaching up to 7 years in prison in the most serious cases. On the other hand, article 197.7 establishes a lower level for the distribution of unauthorized images obtained with permission, imposing a prison sentence of 3 months to 1 year or a fine of 6 to 12 months.

There are other ways to commit this crime, such as unauthorized access to information systems, regulated in articles 197 bis and 197 ter. These articles punish illegal access to information systems and providing the means to commit these crimes, with a prison sentence. from 6 months to 2 years or a fine of 3 to 18 months.

Finally, article 198 establishes a specific crime for authorities or officials public officials who, abusing their position, disclose secrets, impose penalties in their upper half and total disqualification for 6 to 12 years.