Illegal Video Recording of a Surgical Procedure

The Supreme Penal Court of Greece verified the conviction of a medical surgeon for illegal video recording of a surgical procedure and its posting on YouTube despite of not showing the face of the victim. The Court verified that from the other data mentioned in the posting (date of the operation, place and hospital, type of operation, age of the victim, details of the surgeon and his assistants), the data subject was perfectly identifiable, especially in her professional circle.

 

According to the definitions of Law 4624/19 (GDPR implementing law), it is necessary, in order to have a breach the personal data, that there a interference was made in an “data archiving system”, which is also the object of the offence of the criminal act. Such a personal data file within the meaning of the above provisions is also the digital video cameras, which have software programs in which the owner and possessor of the camera enters in separate files the personal data referring to his photos, videos (films), etc., which files (when they are many) are structured in folders and subfolders, as in computers, i.e. the files of the modern video camera are a structured set of personal data.