Public posts on the popular social networking site, Facebook, are considered evidence, the Athens Magistrates' Court ruled, and rejected a request by a debtor who requested to be subject to the provisions of the Katselis law for over-indebted households.
According to the court decision (5551/2019), the debtor, during her dispute with the creditor bank, violated the duty of truth, since she concealed her real financial situation, which emerged from her public posts on Facebook!
The court did not accept that the specific debtor had no income, as she herself claimed, and ruled that she concealed the truth regarding the improvement in the income of both herself and her husband, as they have been living and working in London since 2015.
The court reached this conclusion by taking into account the public postings of photos by the debtor on Facebook. In these postings, she stated that she works in the British metropolis where she now resides permanently. “Consequently, the concealment of the improvement in the applicant’s family income was fraudulent,” the court decision specifically emphasizes, noting that this attitude of the debtor “is likely to damage the satisfaction of the creditor bank.”
As the court ruled, private life may be confidential, but when it is widely publicized, it ceases to be worthy of protection. Specifically, according to the decision, when such personal data of a person becomes known to a relatively large number of persons or can be easily understood by them and considered verified, “then the right to informational self-determination in private life is not violated.”
In the case of Facebook - the court states, - "the user has the possibility to make privacy settings in his "profile", if he wishes to limit the circle of persons who have access to it, to his photos and in general to his posts, that is, to make settings to restrict access to his information".
However, he also "has the possibility to make these data publicly and freely accessible to everyone (even to internet users who do not have a Facebook account), by registering them on the said website without security settings". However, according to the decision, "information which is posted by the data subject in public access on the internet does not constitute personal data and does not fall under the protective provisions of Law 2472/1997".