Legal adviser Dr. Yousef Al-Sharif warned against «privacy violation» by taking pictures of other people without their consent, publishing them, or keeping them without their will, stressing that the penalty in the case of conviction amounts to a fine of half a million dirhams, in addition to imprisonment for six months .
He added that good faith and ignorance of the law did not exempt responsibility.
Sharif explained that «this type of problems are common in the female community, specifically in weddings and private parties».
He pointed out that the punishment of anyone who violates the privacy of others through taking or publishing pictures, imprisonment and fine, or one of them, pointing out that «some women do not realize the caveats and legal consequences of the process of photography at weddings and parties, and the violation of privacy, as invitations to photograph others Items in the same place during the celebration, and the photos are posted or circulated on social media sites, without the permission of those who appear in the photo or video, exposing them to legal accountability in the event of a victim's complaint. In this case, it is not protected to say that they have taken pictures with ignorance or in good faith. ”
Al-Sharif pointed out that there are weddings that prevent the invited owners from taking cameras inside the wedding, including those who use private companies to search the guests of the ceremony, and keep their phones until the end of the wedding or the occasion, in order to prevent women from photographing and violating their privacy, but one woman may violate this ban, and enter the wedding with a camera If you shoot a video or take pictures of other invited women - even if they don't belong to a particular one - and then post the photo on social media, you have committed more than one criminal offense, beginning with the inviolability of the wedding owner, by inserting the camera despite the ban, then violating the privacy of Both appeared in the a Photographer, and have all of them - as well as the owner of the wedding itself - the right of recourse to civil liability as well as criminal responsibility on those women, which did not take into account the rights and freedoms of others.
He pointed out that there are several manifestations in the violation of privacy, which is punishable by law, such as a joke between friends and acquaintances, or between spouses, that the wife of the transfer of content and images from her husband's phone and exploited in the threat or extortion, as this is an infringement on the privacy of others, which is Legally criminalized.
He stressed that the sanctity of man and the sanctity of his private life is one of the most important things urged by the Sharia, and the Almighty said: «Do not spy ..», and espionage carries with it all kinds of infringement on the personal freedom of others, came the criminal legislator guided by this, criminalized everything that would Violating the privacy of others and making it a criminal offense punishable under the Federal Penal Code, specifically Article 378: Any person who violates the sanctity of the private or family life of individuals shall be punished by imprisonment and a fine by committing one of the following acts in cases other than those legally authorized or without the consent of the victim: on him:
■■ Hear, record, or transmit via a device of any kind, conversations held in a private place or by phone or other device.
■■ Capture or transfer with a device, of any kind, a picture of a person in a private place.
Article 21 of the Law on Combating Information Technology Crimes also stipulates: “Any person who uses a penalty of imprisonment for a period of not less than six months and a fine of not less than 150,000 dirhams and not exceeding 500,000 dirhams or one penalty shall be punished. An information network, an electronic information system, or one of the means of information technology in assaulting the privacy of a person in cases other than legally authorized, in one of the following ways:
■ Overheard, intercept, record, transmit, broadcast, or disclose conversations, communications, or audio or video materials.
■ Take photos of others, create, transfer, detect, copy, or retain electronic images.
■ Publish news, electronic images, photographs, scenes, comments, statements or information, even if they are true and true.
Any person who uses an electronic information system or an information technology device to make any modification or processing of a recording or photograph shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not less than one year and a fine of not less than AED 250,000 and not exceeding AED 500,000. Or a scene, with the intent to defame or offend another person, or to violate or violate their privacy.
• Transferring the wife's contents and pictures from her husband's phone, and using her to threaten or blackmail him, is an infringement on privacy.