Facebook fake profile of Poznan author
Attorney-at-law Tomasz Przybecki has undertaken the representation of a well-known Poznan author in a dispute with the social networking site Facebook and the as yet undetermined violator of his client’s personal rights.
Readers informed the client of her alleged Facebook.com profile. The problem is that the profile was created and is administered by someone else without the author’s knowledge and consent, and moreover, using her image and the copyrights to some of her novels.
Previous attempts to remove the fake profile, made directly by the client, have had no effect. Funnily enough, Facebook requires the aggrieved party in such a situation to indicate his real profile. No one apparently foresaw a situation where the aggrieved person does not have and does not want to have a profile on this social network…. “We will remove the fake profile if you set up your real one with us” – is such a policy of the portal legal? This question will ultimately be answered by the court, but the matter is not an easy one. The portal has no formal representation in Poland, and claims should be addressed to its Irish subsidiary Facebook Ireland Limited.
Efforts are currently underway to obtain the personal data of the violator and effectively intervene with the owner of the portal.
The issue of Facebook’s liability is also raised by foreign lawyers. After issuing a cease and desist notice to Facebook Ireland, Ltdportal voluntarily removed the fake profile. This step makes it possible to take further action to identify the perpetrator’s personal information and bring him to justice. Facebook’s attorney refused to provide the personal data of the infringer (the person who set up the fake profile).
As a result, the law firm has applied to the Inspector General for Personal Data Protection to order the portal to release the infringer’s personal data.
First, the GIODO must decide whether the provisions of the Polish Data Protection Act would apply in this case, and thus whether the GIODO is authorized to issue such a decision. At the end of October, the GIODO reported that an investigation had been undertaken, and that the Irish counterpart to the GIODO was also looking into the matter.