The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has fined a popular city restaurant, Casa Vera Lounge, Sh1,850,000 for posting a reveller’s image online without consent.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, ODPC said the club based along Ngong Road violated the data privacy rights by posting the reveler’s image on its social media pages.
The commissioner said that the penalty will serve as a lesson to other clubs to always seek consent from their customers before posting their images online.
“The establishment was fined Sh1,850,000 for posting a reveller’s image on their social media platform without the Data Subject’s consent. This penalty seeks to ensure that other lounges and clubs seek consent from their customers prior to posting,” ODPC stated.
The nature of the image in question and the day it was posted online was, however, not revealed.
Most nightclubs in major cities have been hiring photographers to take pictures of their customers as they enjoy their drinks, with the photos later posted on the clubs’ social media pages.
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The main purpose of the photos is to attract customers. However, some clubs have gone to the extent of taking images of revelers without consent, with some complaining that the act puts their marriages at risk.
In 2021, a reveller who had gone to unwind at Club Laviva along Thika Road was trending after his photo romantically dancing with a lady went viral on social media.
The photo was posted on the club’s Instagram page and later deleted, but it was too late since Netizens had already downloaded it. It was later established that the man was married and the lady he was pictured having fun with at the club was not his wife.
“Article 31 of the Constitution protects the rights of an individual to his or her privacy, and Article 31(c) protects an individual’s information relating to family or private affairs unnecessarily required or revealed.’’
“So a club has no right to post your photos on social media without your consent, not unless, of course, you can clearly be seen to have posed for the photos, both you and your partner or the club management can prove without reasonable doubt that you asked to be photographed yourself, ” he adds.
