“Gaffer” photos and upskirting soon a criminal offense

The Federal Cabinet today approved the draft law on the improvement of the protection of privacy in image recordings, presented by the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection Christine Lambrecht, by amending Section 201a of the Criminal Code Decided.

Protection against exposing images of the deceased

Pursuant to Section 201a Para. 1 No. 3 of the Criminal Code is to be punished with a custodial sentence of up to two years or a fine in future, who manufactures or transmits without authorisation an image that displays a deceased person in a grossly offensive manner. The post-mortem protection of personality, which goes beyond the death of a person and is implemented under civil law, for example by means of injunction claims by the relatives, has not yet been criminally protected here. This gap is filled by the draft law agreed in the coalition agreement. Approval by the Federal Council is not necessary.

Protecting the intimacy from secret recordings

The Draft Law of the Federal Government also provides that, in future, the production and transmission of an image of another person’s genitals, buttocks, breastors or underwear covering those parts of the body is punishable if that person( for example, the clothing or a towel) are protected against sight.

According to the current legal situation, data subjects can defend themselves against secret image rye and demand deletion, for example. In addition, “upskirting” can be punished as an administrative offence.

However, this behaviour has not usually been punishable.

The entire draft law can be found here.