**Women’s Rights in the Digital Age: Consent and Hidden Recordings**
Technology has profoundly changed life in society. In many ways, it has improved our quality of life. However, technological development has also introduced new dimensions to gender-based violence as we know it.
Today, violence against women in the digital world is a reality. Numerous posts, pages, and content creators promote misogyny, hatred, and violence against women and their autonomy. Both online and offline, women’s consent is systematically devalued.
Recently, the BBC reported that smart glasses are being used by “manfluencers” to record pickup attempts. The footage is later published on these creators’ professional pages. The women filmed consistently appear uncomfortable with the non-consensual exposure and with the negative and invasive comments they end up receiving. When contacted about the issue, authorities have offered insufficient responses, claiming that recording in public spaces is not illegal and that nothing can be done. But is that really the case?
The General Data Protection Regulation leaves no doubt that a person’s image and voice constitute personal data. As such, and because content creators carry out these recordings as part of a commercial activity, the processing of these videos is subject to the GDPR, even when they are recorded in public spaces.
Since the GDPR applies, there must be a lawful basis for data processing. In this case, the most likely basis would be the woman’s consent. However, women’s consent is ignored, despite legal obligations pointing in that direction. In fact, several women reported that they saw no indication they were being recorded by smart glasses, making it completely impossible to consent (or not) to the capture of their images.
These incidents reinforce that gender-based violence does not manifest only through physical aggression. It also appears in the lack of respect for women’s autonomy and in their unauthorized transformation into objects of profit. If these problems already existed before, technology has intensified this reality.
Despite the constant evolution of the law, women’s exposure to the harms of new technologies remains a reality. More than simply illustrating a data protection violation, smart glasses show that gender-based violence can take on new forms and rely on new gadgets. This raises an important question: is data protection law sufficient to safeguard women’s autonomy in the digital space? And if not, what should be the next step?
