Η Αστυνομία του West Midlands φαίνεται ότι παίρνει την προστασία της ιδιωτικής ζωής πολύ σοβαρά. Έτσι, όταν τρεις άνδρες 20χρονών συνελήφθησαν με την υποψία της κλοπής προβάτων, η Αστυνομία πρόσθεσε pixels στα πρόσωπα των θυμάτων - ναι στα αρνιά - για να τα εμφανίσει στο δελτίο τύπου τους.
According to the statement, the Romanians took the lambs in a car in the Yardley of the West Midlands, and the police managed to capture them.
BBC News commented:
"πηγές αναφέρουν ότι ο αξιωματικός θόλωσε την εικόνα σαν αστείο. Προφανώς κατέληξε στο συμπέρασμα ότι είχε υποχρέωση βάσει της σύμβασης για τα δικαιώματα των προβατίνων στην Ευρώπη να κρύψει τα πρόσωπα των αρνιών."
And a more serious note
West Midlands Police acted entirely under guidelines which specifically state that they should not give out information relating to victims of crime. Under legislation including the Data Protection Act and section 8 of the Human Rights Act, the police must protect any personal information, except and if there is a very serious reason.
But it is not just the police, which has to protect personal information. Journalists, for example, are subject to the same law.
Again the police movement was exaggerated.
In a recent example though, the Huffington Post reported that David Dinsmore, Chief Operating News UK officer, had been convicted of publishing information that identified the victim of a sexual assault.
One of the group's newspapers had published the photograph of the former England player Adam Johnson. The court ruled that it did not go far enough to cover up the identity of the victim.
A lot can happen from the mistake of a newspaper, which does not sufficiently conceal the identity of the victim. Somewhere here we should also mention the dangers of social media, where the public tries to guess the victim by collecting data.
In today's online world where the information lives forever, there is no room for error in privacy.
