The ruling by the European Court of Justice concerned a Swedish church volunteer who had set up a web site to provide information to church parishioners. Unfortunately, webmaster Mrs Lindqvist included a few details about fellow volunteers on the site and as a result found herself in court, charged with breaches of EU data protection laws.
Several appeals later, the case was heard by the Court of Justice. It decided that:
"...the act of referring, on an internet page, to various persons and identifying them by name or by other means, for instance by giving their telephone number or information regarding their working conditions and hobbies, constitutes the processing of personal data wholly or partly by automatic means within the meaning of [the Directive]."
Accordingly it is prohibited by EU law.
The case comes as a salutary reminder that the EU's Data Protection Directive classes photos and video clips as personal data where living individuals can be identified.
Norway's Data Inspectorate has already confirmed that it will act to remove offending material from web sites.
DI information chief Ove Skaara told Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten: "This clears the way for giving us independent reasons to react. We can order sites to remove illegal content and if they do not comply we can issue daily fines."
He added that while the agency would be flexible, it would now find it easier to take serious cases to court.