Grandmother ordered by court to delete Facebook pictures of grandchild after falling out with daughter
22 May 2020, 12:29
The judges ruled the grandmother had to take down the social media images of the child under GDPR.
Following a falling out with her daughter, a grandmother was taken to court over images of her grandchild she had posted on Facebook.
The case was bought in front of a judge in Holland after the woman refused to remove said images from social media after being asked by her daughter.
READ MORE: Can grandparents look after their grandkids during lockdown?
The mother of the child is said to have asked her mum multiple times to remove the images before it was taken to a court.
While GDPR (EU's General Data Protection Regulation) usually doesn't apply to “purely personal” or “household” data, the court decided this was an exception as posting photographs on social media made them available to a wider audience.
The ruling said: “With Facebook, it cannot be ruled out that placed photos may be distributed and may end up in the hands of third parties."
The woman was ordered to delete the pictures, or face a £45 fine for every day she fails to do so, with the maximum fine being £1,000.
The grandmother will also be fined an extra £45 per day if she shares more pictures of the child on social media.
Neil Brown, a technology lawyer at Decoded Legal, said on the case: "I think the ruling will surprise a lot of people who probably don't think too much before they tweet or post photos.
"Irrespective of the legal position, would it be reasonable for the people who've posted those photos to think, 'Well, he or she doesn't want them out there anymore'?"
"Actually, the reasonable thing - the human thing to do - is to go and take them down."
READ MORE: Neighbour's angry note tells mum not to let child out to play as it disturbs her dogs
