Portrait Rights of a Passport Photo

On a security forum, we came across an interesting question about the portrait rights of a passport photo.

A user asked whether their student association could include their passport photo in a directory without their permission, allowing others to view their photo without consent:

The issue concerns a study association that forwarded my profile photo to various offices for the creation of a directory without my permission. Apart from this situation, I strongly suspect that my passport photo has been viewed unnecessarily and without purpose by various members of the study association, due to a personal situation with a committee member.

The student had to upload a passport photo upon registration, as membership and participation in activities required it.

Let's explore this further.

Personal Data and Global Data Protection Laws

First, we need to determine whether a passport photo is considered personal data.

According to Charlotte's Law, data is considered personal if it identifies, or can identify, a person. This includes photographs of individuals.

Charlotte adds:

Portrait photos showing a person's face are clearly personal data, whether they depict an individual or multiple people. A photo is considered personal data for everyone whose face is visible.

Portrait photos are even classified as special categories of personal data under global data protection laws, as they can reveal characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and health information.

Consent and Legal Implications

A passport photo, as a clear portrait of an individual, is considered personal data. Personal data cannot be shared without explicit consent.

Data protection authorities in various countries states that, in the case of a photo directory, an employer may only use a person's photo on an intranet if explicit consent has been given. This consent must be voluntary, informed, and specific to the situation.

Based on this, we can conclude that the study association has likely violated data protection regulations worldwide, and the student has the right to file a complaint with the authorities.

However, some forum participants suggest that the student may benefit from accepting that their photo is being used within the association for networking purposes, potentially improving their career opportunities.