Image Right and the Electoral Roll

Presidential elections are taking place in Argentina this year and the National Electoral Court (the “Court”) has published the electoral roll on the website www.padron.gob.ar. According to section 29 of the Electoral Code (Law No. 19,945), it is mandatory for the Court to include the following information in the electoral roll: ID class and number, name and surname, address, order number.

Even though it is not mandatory to include ID photos of the voters, the Court nonetheless included ID photos without the voters' express and informed consent.

According to section 2 of Data Protection Law (Law No. 25,326) personal data is any kind of Information referred to identified or identifiable persons. Therefore, one’s image is considered personal data and its treatment requires express and informed consent of the data subject (section 5 of the Data Protection Law).

Furthermore, Intellectual Property Law (Law No. 11,723) also protects this right of self-image under section 31 stating that: “portrait of a person cannot be placed on the market without the express consent of that person”. The same is established in the new Civil and Commercial Code under section 53, with limited exceptions.

Shortly after the publication, voters complained through different social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and alike. A few days after these informal complaints, photos were withdrawn.

It is interesting to note that no formal complaint was needed in this case; the clear impact in social media was enough for the Court to withdraw the photos from the website and comply with Argentine regulations.