How to complain in a case where you believe that your privacy has been violated?
There are several remedies available to you if you believe that your right to private life has been violated. Depending on the type and severity of intrusion into your privacy, you can choose to:
- protect your privacy by action in civil court
- go to the police to initiate criminal proceedings
example If a newspaper publishes private information about your family and there is no legitimate reason to publish such information, you can sue the publisher of that newspaper in civil court.
If you believe that information about your private life has been made public for no good reason, you can bring a civil claim against the disseminator of this information. In civil court you can ask for monetary compensation or an apology. You can take into account both material (for example loss of income) and moral damages. In your application to the court, you should explain:
- which facts or information about your private life were made public
- how and when they were made public, such as the date, time, the publication and media
- why this violates your rights
- whether you are seeking compensation and the type, for example, monetary or an apology
- and justify why you are asking for that compensation specifically, for example, the particular sum of money
You can request the police to initiate criminal proceedings about a violation of your privacy, especially in following cases:
- where your correspondence, photographs, audio or video recordings or any other private documents have been intentionally made public and this has caused you substantial harm
- where the secrecy of your correspondence has been intentionally violated
- where your private life or the life of other persons staying within your home have been illegally monitored and documented
- where your personal data have been provided to another person or published illegally
- where your private conversation or other expressions have been illegally recorded and made public violating thus their confidential characterÂ
Complaint
If the police reject your request to initiate criminal proceedings and you consider that the decision taken by the police is not well-founded, you may appeal it to the supervising prosecutor in your case. You must submit the complaint to review decision taken by the police within 30 days of the date when you received the decision. The procedure and time-limits for the appeal must be indicated in the decision.
Civil claim within criminal proceedings
If the police initiate a criminal case and indict the accused, you may claim compensation of damage from the accused during the criminal proceedings. However, if your claim for compensation is not fully satisfied within criminal proceedings, you may bring a civil claim.