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This unfortunately seems to also be the case with GDPR in Europe. People use it as a scary sounding excuse for various nonsense, even when it clearly doesn’t ap

This unfortunately seems to also be the case with GDPR in Europe. People use it as a scary sounding excuse for various nonsense, even when it clearly doesn’t apply. I recently heard a university claim that GDPR prevented them from recording lectures amongst other things. I’ve also heard numerous individuals complain that GDPR prevented them from doing one thing or another, when GDPR doesn’t apply to things individuals do in most cases. Well-publicised laws generally get this treatment, where people invoke their name as some sort of magic incantation to justify their action (or more often inaction), and know little to nothing about the law itself.

zamadatix 6y ago
I'd be curious why University recordings weren't subject to GDPR myself. Consent could be had and managed but I could see this as enough trouble to just not do recordings as a result, especially since it can be withdrawn later.
- smnrchrds 6y ago
  I don't know anything about GDPR, but I guess at most it will protect students. If they only record professors while giving lectures, that can't be illegal, can it? And I'm sure the professor cannot withdraw consent for sharing the video anymore than an actor can withdraw consent from appearing in a film he had played in 10 years ago.
  - anticensor 6y ago
    Not GDPR, but school regulations and other privacy regulations may prevent such recording by students.
  - PeterisP 6y ago
    At least pre-Covid, I presume that the general contract for professors does not include an agreement to be recorded, their job duties include giving lectures to students but not (without specific amendments) preparing recordings for public distribution. IMHO it might be the case that if a particular professor really wants to, they can refuse to be recorded (or refuse to allow arbitrary redistribution of the record beyond the students to which the lecture was given) without any legal ability for the university to push them to agree to that - while in this site most of GDPR discussion refers to its application for websites, in reality most of GDPR enforcement has been in the non-web world and especially for the employer-employee relations, including things like surveillance cameras in workspaces and the validity of nonnegotiated clauses in employment contracts regarding employee privacy rights; so the employer pushing a contract change "agree to be recorded or stop working for us" might not be legal. The specific details matter, of course. Some examples of actual GDPR enforcement cases for mishandling of employee information: https://www.complianceweek.com/regulatory-enforcement/german-laptop-retailer-fined-127m-under-gdpr-for-employee-surveillance/29911.article https://www.complianceweek.com/regulatory-enforcement/german... - general video surveillance of employees; https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/hm-fined-352m-for-gdpr-violations/ https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/hm-fined-352m-for... - one of the biggest GDPR fines, for tracking various (IMHO clearly unreasonable) private data of employees; https://dataprivacymanager.net/725000e-gdpr-fine-by-dutch-dpa-for-collecting-employees-fingerprints/ https://dataprivacymanager.net/725000e-gdpr-fine-by-dutch-dp... - collecting employee fingerprints in an inappropriate manner. https://inplp.com/latest-news/article/EUR-150000-gdpr-fine-imposed-on-pwc-by-greek-data-protection-authority-for-being-not-accountable/ https://inplp.com/latest-news/article/EUR-150000-gdpr-fine-i... - employer asserting that a "consent" form that they forced all employees to sign counts as actual consent. I'm not saying that this necessarily prevents recording of lectures, but it also doesn't seem to be the case that you can "just do it" without properly accessing the legal aspect.
- noodlesUK 6y ago
  They are subject to the GDPR in so far as they might record students, who might then need to give consent, which could then be withdrawn. In so far as the lecturers are concerned, the lawful basis is likely not to be consent, but rather a contractual obligation, where different rules apply. If for instance, paid actors in films could arbitrarily exercise their right to be forgotten, that would not be a tenable situation. The solution is clearly to not record students in any identifiable way, but there’s no need to avoid recording the lecture altogether. In fact, if the student were not identifiable, I expect it would be perfectly legitimate to record them without any explicit consent. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice

zamadatix 6y ago

I'd be curious why University recordings weren't subject to GDPR myself. Consent could be had and managed but I could see this as enough trouble to just not do recordings as a result, especially since it can be withdrawn later.

smnrchrds 6y ago
I don't know anything about GDPR, but I guess at most it will protect students. If they only record professors while giving lectures, that can't be illegal, can it? And I'm sure the professor cannot withdraw consent for sharing the video anymore than an actor can withdraw consent from appearing in a film he had played in 10 years ago.
- anticensor 6y ago
  Not GDPR, but school regulations and other privacy regulations may prevent such recording by students.
- PeterisP 6y ago
  At least pre-Covid, I presume that the general contract for professors does not include an agreement to be recorded, their job duties include giving lectures to students but not (without specific amendments) preparing recordings for public distribution. IMHO it might be the case that if a particular professor really wants to, they can refuse to be recorded (or refuse to allow arbitrary redistribution of the record beyond the students to which the lecture was given) without any legal ability for the university to push them to agree to that - while in this site most of GDPR discussion refers to its application for websites, in reality most of GDPR enforcement has been in the non-web world and especially for the employer-employee relations, including things like surveillance cameras in workspaces and the validity of nonnegotiated clauses in employment contracts regarding employee privacy rights; so the employer pushing a contract change "agree to be recorded or stop working for us" might not be legal. The specific details matter, of course. Some examples of actual GDPR enforcement cases for mishandling of employee information: https://www.complianceweek.com/regulatory-enforcement/german-laptop-retailer-fined-127m-under-gdpr-for-employee-surveillance/29911.article https://www.complianceweek.com/regulatory-enforcement/german... - general video surveillance of employees; https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/hm-fined-352m-for-gdpr-violations/ https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/hm-fined-352m-for... - one of the biggest GDPR fines, for tracking various (IMHO clearly unreasonable) private data of employees; https://dataprivacymanager.net/725000e-gdpr-fine-by-dutch-dpa-for-collecting-employees-fingerprints/ https://dataprivacymanager.net/725000e-gdpr-fine-by-dutch-dp... - collecting employee fingerprints in an inappropriate manner. https://inplp.com/latest-news/article/EUR-150000-gdpr-fine-imposed-on-pwc-by-greek-data-protection-authority-for-being-not-accountable/ https://inplp.com/latest-news/article/EUR-150000-gdpr-fine-i... - employer asserting that a "consent" form that they forced all employees to sign counts as actual consent. I'm not saying that this necessarily prevents recording of lectures, but it also doesn't seem to be the case that you can "just do it" without properly accessing the legal aspect.
noodlesUK 6y ago
They are subject to the GDPR in so far as they might record students, who might then need to give consent, which could then be withdrawn. In so far as the lecturers are concerned, the lawful basis is likely not to be consent, but rather a contractual obligation, where different rules apply. If for instance, paid actors in films could arbitrarily exercise their right to be forgotten, that would not be a tenable situation. The solution is clearly to not record students in any identifiable way, but there’s no need to avoid recording the lecture altogether. In fact, if the student were not identifiable, I expect it would be perfectly legitimate to record them without any explicit consent. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice