It’s what the title says, i don’t want to be posted on fricking instagram and my school didn’t ask for anyone’s consent. It’s not just one, it’s severeal. How can i make instagram remove them? Thank you for your help
edit 1: thanks for the heads up, especially for the ones who seem truly interested to help me in this matter. So what i did till now is to send an email to my school collaborator (which is a scholastic figure who is responsible for the management of the school in general) requesting the deletion of the images depicting myself.
This is the complete request translated in english: Hi, I saw that recently several photos have been posted by the school account on instagram that depict me. I kindly request the removal of the aforementioned photos, since I have not given consent (or if given, withdraw such consent) to the publication of my image online on accounts not controlled and managed by me. I explicitly ask you to avoid “censoring” my image, but to commit to deleting the photos in which I am present, in order to avoid any kind of retaliation against me. Please let me know if there is anything else I should do to complete this process, thanks for your cooperation.
I’ve also tried to let instagram delete these images through this link but i don’t know if it was successful or not because i gave them an email as contact info but i didn’t receive anything yet.
I’ll let you know how this ends Update: Today, during class hours, I was summoned by the principal to their office. They wanted to discuss with me the content of that email, specifically they asked me directly severeal things. They asked me if i was in any kind of “danger”, since i wrote, in their opinion, a sentence that could be interpreted as a sort of announcement of possible danger on my side. They were referring to this sentence contained in the email: “…in order to avoid any kind of retaliation against me.”. I replied to them that i was merely referring to possible social judgment that could come from my classmates and/or erasmus participants after seeing my face censored or any photo deleted on any school social account.
They asked me the reason why i wanted those photos to be deleted, to which i replied that i didn’t enjoy the idea of having my likeness shown in social accounts that i don’t own and don’t have access to (they even posted me on facebook by the way).
So, that mocking removed of a principal, replied to me saying that apparently my dad did sign the privacy waiver back when he enrolled me to my school so basically i have no right to request the deletion of the photos and neither having my face censored because, since i’m a minor, my dad signed it. I then asked them if it was possible to withdraw such consent, and they replied that it was possible but my parents are in charge of it, not me. They then warned me about having called my parents asking, prior to our meeting, if they remember signing the waiver, to which they replied “yes” (but of course when i advancely asked them if they remember signing anything, they said idk/i don’t remember) but not only that, they even said that my parents weren’t willing to withdraw any consent regarding my image usage nor any privacy related clauses (thanks mom, thanks dad, as always).
Set apart the mockings about how this request of mine was only a fixation and that there could not be any kind of social retaliation against me because students won’t give a damn about why my face was censored (which is a good things, except that it’s not how it works here) and they instead focus on studying (biggest lie i’ve eve heard, my school sucks ass when it comes to having committed students, no coincidence that i was the only one able to speak english among the erasmus participants) and that i should do it too instead of thinking about these things… set apart that, since i was exhausted i said fine, i’ll be waiting till i’m 18 years old and then you’ll remove those images. They basically said (NUH UH) that they’re not going to delete any photo since the purpose of erasmuses, as a European initiative, is to disseminate, which means publicize this initiative and that the best they can do is to “censor” my face. I replied to them that it was their choice, and not this kind of erasmus purpose, to not commit deleting the images in which i was present. I said whatever, as long as my face is censored, i can sleep well at night but they said that they are gonna censor me as the law requires… great, what does it mean? It means that they’re just gonna be putting a black bar to cover my eyes. Oh that’s awesome, haha facebook, got you there, i’m unrecognizable now!
So what can i do now? My last resorts are either to convince my parents to withdraw such consent or to continue emailing instagram about deleting the photos in which my face is shown. Instagram in the end did respond to my request but, they were asking me the exact position and description of me in the photo, so that they can verify that i am indeed in that photo (how exactly? I don’t know since i could be faking it). Isn’t that like telling facebook who i am , which is exactly the contrary to the purpose of my request? What are your opinions about this?
Great, thanks for the answer. But i need to make some sort of official request in order to be taken seriously, do i have to quote some specific GDPR laws in the email? I don’t want to ask it nicely and then wait for a response that goes “What ? Oh no, we can’t do that, you were part of the project of the school and the photos can’t be removed because it’s very important for the school to bla bla bla bla…”
The exact law you’ll want to quote depends on the exact country you reside in. GDPR itself is not a law, but an EU directive saying that all member nations have to put a law in their books with these specific conditions. So there’ll be a law in your country that has these clauses but might not be called GDPR.
Well but i can always rely on GDPR, right? I don’t know about any specific laws here in italy
You can quote GDPR directly, I do it all the time and the French regulator (CNIL) does it too. The member state’s backing law is an implementation detail.
I recommend asking informally first. If that does not work, you can remind them of their obligations under GDPR. If you have not given consent for this, you can mention their processing is unlawful under article 6 of GDPR, which specifies a list of valid basis for the processing of personal data (typically getting direct consent). You will have to check you did not previously give consent to this processing, however. In any case, if you did, you are allowed to retract it at no conditions.
My experience of fighting companies on GDPR grounds is that they often come up with bullshit about “legitimate interest” (article 6 point f) to pretend they are using a legitimate basis. I don’t expect it would be necessary but if you want to have a stronger legal claim, you can instead claim that their processing is unlawful under article 9, as a photograph is personal data revealing ethnic/racial origin. One caveat: if you gave them consent for this, this does not apply.
In any case, even if you have given previous consent, you can withdraw the consent and request that your personal data is erased under article 17 point 1b. Because they made it public, they will have to also remove it from public places to the extent of what is possible (article 17 point 2). This would typically mean that they have to remove it from Instagram also.
That’s very useful. Thank you for the explanation and your time spent making this comment. If they come up with some shit, i’ll definetly tell them the articles you stated
Shouldn’t be too hard to Google. Also there might be other laws on your side