Vivares Vs Sta Theresa College Digest 6f632t

Section 3, Article III, 1987 Constitution Vivares vs St. Theresa’s College GR 202666, 29 Sept. 2014

Facts: Daluz, Suzara, among others, who were graduating high school students of St. Theresa’s College, took digital pictures of themselves being covered only in their undergarments, drinking hard liquor, and smoking cigarettes. The photos were shown to Escudero, a computer teacher at STC’s HS department. She reported the matter and the identified students were then barred from ing their commencement exercises. Petitioners filed before the RTC a Petition for the Issuance of a Writ of Habeas Data. The RTC dismissed the petition for habeas data. Hence, this certiorari.

Issue: Was there an actual or threatened violation of the right to privacy in the life, liberty, or security of the minors that will entitle them to the writ of habeas data? Up to what extent is the right protected in Facebook and other social networking sites? Did STC violate the right to privacy of the minors?

Ruling: No. The writ of habeas data is a remedy available to any person whose right to privacy in life, liberty or security is violated or threatened by an unlawful act or omission of a public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity engaged in the gathering, collecting or storing of data or information regarding the person, family, home and correspondence of the aggrieved party. Using Facebook’s privacy tools, s can choose as to when and to what extent to disclose facts about themselves – and to put others in the position of receiving such confidences. The utilization of these privacy tools is the manifestation, in cyber world, of the ’s invocation of his or her right to informational privacy. In the case at bar, the petitioners’ children’s Facebook s, allegedly, were under “Only Friends.” However, the Court said that setting the privacy to “Friends” is no assurance since a ’s own Facebook friend can share said content or tag his or her own Facebook friend thereto, resulting to a greater number of s who can view the content. In addition, respondent STC got the information from persons who had legitimate access to the said posts. Clearly, STC did not violate petitioners’ daughters’ right to privacy. Hence, the petition for habeas data is denied.