The President of the PL SA notified the prosecutor’s office about the publication of pictures

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office notified the prosecutor's office about the publication of pictures of individuals taken without their knowledge and consent.

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office, Mirosław Wróblewski, notified the prosecutor's office of a possible crime involving the unauthorised processing of personal data by posting images of individuals on a website accessible to logged-in users without their knowledge or consent.

The notification concerns the website located at Zbiornik.com and Zbiornik.tv. and is a result of an article published on the Wirtualna Polska website ("I'll show my wife, who will judge? Thousands of photos of naked Polish women on the internet without their consent"). It describes situations where users of a website containing sexual material share photos or videos of women, suggesting that they were taken without their knowledge. In some cases, the materials show not only the faces but also other distinctive features of the people visible, such as tattoos.

The terms and conditions of the website state that the user also obligates themselves not to violate the rights of third parties when using the website, and in particular declares that they hold the property copyrights to all content presented on the website, including texts, images, and videos. By accepting the terms and conditions, the user also declares that they have the right to freely dispose of their image or the image of third parties depicted in the photos, and that they will retain these rights for as long as they present such content through the website. The President of the Personal Data Protection Office notes that the persons visible in the recordings or photographs may have been unaware not only that their image would be used, but also that they were being photographed or recorded in an intimate situation.

As a result, personal data may have been processed without the consent of the data subject and without any other legal basis specified in Article 6(1) of Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR), or in Article 9(2) of the GDPR - relating to special categories of data, which include those relating to sexuality.

According to the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, in this case, it should be taken into account that an image belongs to the private sphere of every human being, and the sexually charged context of publishing images, which violates the informational autonomy of the persons depicted, further justifies the reprehensible and socially harmful nature of such actions. The scope of personal data made available is clearly linked to the possibility of identifying the data subjects, posing a risk of violating their rights or freedoms, while access to this data by unauthorised persons may give rise to risks such as damage to reputation, psychological harm, or financial loss.

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office also explains that, pursuant to Article 107(1) of the Polish Personal Data Protection Act (The Act of 10 May 2018 on the Protection of Personal Data), anyone who processes personal data, even though such processing is inadmissible or they are not authorised to process it, is subject to a fine, restriction of liberty, or imprisonment for up to two years, but if the act referred to in paragraph 1 concerns special categories of data , they shall be subject to a fine, restriction of liberty, or imprisonment for up to three years.

According to the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, the actions described should be considered unlawful, and therefore it was necessary to file a report with the prosecutor's office.

The details of the notification can be found in the attached document: DKN.5101.334.2025