No secrets: college and student fined for photographing student's personal details

In Stavropol Krai, a judge fined a college and a student for taking out of the teacher's office pictures of another student's personal file and for distributing the young man's address and portrait via Telegram. Such incidents, when it comes to the fact of disclosure of personal data, are certainly dangerous, experts say. According to the interviewed lawyers, the decision on the fine for the college student can be regarded as a kind of precedent - Roskomnadzor will use it as a justification for similar situations. "Izvestia" dealt with the details.

Conflict in the audience

A justice of the peace in the Stavropol region (Izvestia has the verdict) punished the college and its student who took a photo of a fellow student's page from her personal file. Roskomnadzor found that in social networks college students distributed a photo, as well as a certificate on the composition of the family of a minor boy.

The case was handled by the prosecutor's office. As it became known to local and central media, the incident occurred immediately after the college teacher left the office and left the personal file of one of the students on the table. According to the court, students who had a conflict with the minor entered the classroom and photographed his documents.

After clarifying the circumstances, the magistrate fined the college itself and the student who had distributed the photos with the address and portrait of the young man under part 1 and part 6 of article 13.11 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the justice of the peace of the peace of judicial district № 13 of the Industrial District of Stavropol ruled that the fault of the educational institution is that its employee left the office without locking it, and did not remove the student's personal file in a special safe. Accordingly, he failed to ensure proper storage. The judge fined the college 50 thousand rubles, and the girl - 2 thousand rubles.

The curious thing about this case is that Roskomnadzor decided to go beyond the usual limits and demanded to fine the college student as an individual, Mikhail Bozhor, general director of the law firm Afonin, Bozhor and Partners, explained to Izvestia. This is an atypical practice: although the law provides for such a possibility, the courts conduct such processes very rarely, the specialist notes. As an argument, he cited the decision of the Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction of 29.11.2022 N P16-4000/2022, when a citizen was warned for using other people's personal data for mailing.

- There are practically no similar decisions in the databases of judicial acts, - adds Mikhail Bozhor. - Therefore, the decision on the fine for the college student can be considered as a precedent, and Roskomnadzor will use it as a justification for similar situations.

If we talk about the danger of this case for ordinary citizens (who, for example, will commit the same actions as the college student), the expert believes that Roskomnadzor is unlikely to search for detailed violations or examine complaints in detail. The fact is that the agency has a certain staff resource, which is loaded with inspections of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs.

Elena Avakyan, vice president of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of the Russian Federation, believes, in turn, that the victim still has the right to compensation for moral damage caused by the violation of his right to privacy.

"Izvestia" sent requests to the press services of the Stavropol Territory Court and the federal Roskomnadzor.

Risk of uncontrolled bullying

Russia has regulated the processing and protection of personal information in sufficient detail. According to experts, the authors of the law "On Personal Data" were guided, among other things, by current foreign experience and spelled out in sufficient detail the procedure and conditions for handling personal data. Further clarifications are contained in government resolutions, as well as orders of the Federal Security Service and FSTEC. Another document prescribing to keep information confidential is the Labor Code, where there is a separate article on disciplinary offenses.

Elena Avakyan, Vice-President of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of the Russian Federation, notes that data leakage is dangerous primarily due to the risk of illegal use of this information, for example, by fraudsters. And in the youth environment there is also a risk of uncontrolled bullying of the victimized student. The obtained data can be used against a person, trying to insult, hurt or simply embarrass him, agrees Mikhail Tevs , head of IDX legal service.

- The student's behavior is not so harmless, as she committed illegal actions to collect information concerning information about a person's private life," says Sergey Dubovichenko, Head of the Department of Criminal Law Disciplines of MFYA Sergey Dubovichenko.

In judicial practice, the specialist continues, the concept of "private life" includes that area of human activity, which concerns only him and is not subject to control by society and the state, if it is not illegal. In order to resolve this issue in essence, it is important what kind of information was obtained by the college student from her personal file and whether it can be attributed to the information about the private life of the young man, which constitutes his personal and family secret.

- In this regard, we find it difficult to agree with the court's decision to convict the student for copying and dissemination of information under part 1 of article 13.11 of the Administrative Offenses Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of personal data"). In such situations, it is necessary to consider the presence of elements of a crime under Article 137 of the Criminal Code of the RF ("Violation of inviolability of private life"). We do not exclude that the fact of bringing to administrative responsibility was an attempt to avoid criminal liability, - says the lawyer.

Tatyana Satskevich, Head of the Department of State-Law and Financial-Legal Disciplines of MFYUA , adds that the employer had the right to apply one of the disciplinary penalties under Article 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, namely reprimand, reprimand and dismissal to the college teacher responsible for the storage of personal information.

RDTech experts believe that "such precedents, strange as it may sound, are useful for the formation of legal practice in the field of personal information protection and creation of public resonance".

What to do if data is disclosed

Personal data is any information related to a specific person. Surname, first name, middle name, cell phone, email, residential address, photo, passport data. It is necessary to store, use, supplement, copy, block and perform other operations with personal data only after receiving approval from the subject, reminds Yulia Ramsenkova, a member of the Russian Bar Association.

Tatyana Satskevich, Head of the Department of State, Legal, Financial and Legal Disciplines of the Moscow Finance and Law Academy, points out that there are different situations of data leakage, and each subject has the right to decide how to defend his or her own interests:

- to apply to the judicial authorities with a lawsuit, where the requirement to stop processing, block access to personal data, compensate for material and moral damages is prescribed;

- file complaints with Roskomnadzor, which will initiate an additional check and, if violations are found, will take adequate measures;

- apply to law enforcement agencies, which will allow, in case of successful completion of the case, to ensure administrative or criminal liability of the violators.