Unauthorized Posting – The Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung

Attention burglars: In many South Tyrolean chat groups, photos of suspicious people and cars are repeatedly posted to warn fellow citizens. But that’s actually not allowed.

There are now more and more communities: WhatsApp and Facebook groups with titles like: “Caution, burglars”. There are repeated reports of burglaries and attempted burglaries in South Tyrol, which causes uncertainty among the population. Many are afraid that they will be next or that the burglars will suddenly find themselves in their own home. That’s why more and more groups are forming on Facebook, WhatsApp and other platforms that actually have only one goal: to report suspicious observations, vehicles or people in order to warn fellow citizens.

It is not unusual to find photos of suspicious cars and license plates in these groups – but also recordings from video surveillance cameras or photos that are supposed to show suspicious people or suspected burglars.

But that’s not allowed, emphasizes the lawyer Alexander Kritzinger. “You can take photos, but not publish them – unless you pixelate the faces of the people so that they are not recognizable,” explains Alexander Kritzinger. “Of course you can take photos and you can also make them available to the authorities, but if you want to publish photos, you have to make the people on them unrecognizable.” According to Kritzinger, this applies to both private and public groups and also to photos of cars or license plates – according to Kritzinger, the license plates would also have to be pixelated here in order to make them unrecognizable.

According to Alexander Kritzinger, it becomes even more difficult when you publish a photo of a young man or woman who later turns out to be a minor. “But if there have been burglaries in a zone, photos of people who behaved suspiciously or of license plates can definitely be forwarded to the authorities for investigation,” explains the lawyer. But publishing a photo – no matter what the title – is not allowed. “The same applies to sharing or forwarding such images,” explains the lawyer, which is also not okay.

Anyone who publishes such photos can be held accountable under civil and criminal law. Even if you film a criminal record, i.e. have recordings that show a burglary, you shouldn’t just publish these pictures like that. “First of all, this person has not yet been sentenced, secondly, you can’t say exactly what happened – so you can only pass this material on to the police without pixelation, if you want to publish it you would have to make the person unrecognizable,” emphasizes the lawyer .

The principle is always the same: you can take photos, whether at the meadow festival or on the beach, but if you want to publish them, other people in these photos must be made unrecognizable. The lawyer explains the situation using an example: “If I publish a photo of a band playing at the Wiesenfest, the band can be recognizable, but I would have to pixel all the other spectators,” explains Alexander Kritzinger.

Back to the burglaries: The lawyer advises forwarding photos of suspicious people or vehicles to the authorities. They could then compare the data or use it for further investigations. “You can only publish these photos if you pixelate the person’s face on them,” emphasizes Alexander Kritzinger once again.