Mediaboss Marketing

AP FILE PHOTO

A social phenomenon nowadays is online social networking (OSN). This is exemplified by Facebook which, according to one case, has created a worldwide forum enabling friends to share information such as thoughts, links, and photographs, with one another (H v. W, Case No. 12/10142, Jan. 30, 2013).

To address concerns about privacy, but without defeating their purpose, OSN sites use different privacy tools. For example, while the default setting of Facebook profiles is public (where the online information may be viewed by everyone on Facebook), a user can limit access to his or her information to: Friends of Friends where only the users Facebook friends and their friends can view the information; Friends where only the users Facebook friends can view the information; Custom where the information is made visible only to designated individuals, and Only Me where the information can be viewed only by the user.

When a user limits accessibility of his or her online information or data to friends (or other similar privacy tools in other OSN sites), does such restriction legally protect the privacy of the user?

This question was answered by the Supreme Court in Vivares vs. St. Theresas College (G.R. No. 202666, September 29, 2014).

Before answering the question, the high court, citing former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, said that there are three strands of the right to privacy, viz: locational or situational privacy; informational privacy, and decisional privacy.

The right to informational privacy refers to the right of individuals to control information about themselves.

In the Vivares case, several high school students of the St. Theresas College were not allowed to graduate because they were seen drinking liquor in public places and wearing revealing outfit in public places in violation of the schools rules. The evidence consisted of photos shown by the friends of the students to the school authorities. They claimed that their right to privacy was violated, pointing out that they limited access to their photos to their Friends.

The Supreme Court ruled against the students, stating that setting a posts or profile details privacy to Friends is no assurance that it can no longer be viewed by another user who is not Facebook friends with the source of the content. The users own Facebook friend can share said content or tag his or her own Facebook friend thereto, regardless of whether the user tagged by the latter is Facebook friends or not with the former. Also, when the post is shared or when a person is tagged, the respective Facebook friends of the person who shared the post or who was tagged can view the post, the privacy setting of which was set at Friends.

The court added: To illustrate, suppose A has 100 Facebook friends and B has 200. A and B are not Facebook friends. If C, As Facebook friend, tags B in As post, which is set at Friends, the initial audience of 100 (As own Facebook friends) is dramatically increased to 300 (As 100 friends plus Bs 200 friends or the public, depending upon Bs privacy setting). As a result, the audience who can view the post is effectively expandedand to a very large extent.

Here is the original post:
Is there a right to privacy in online social networking?