Jennifer lived in a toxic relationship and didn't know it. The "proofs of love" he asked her for were increasingly complex: shared passwords or accessing requests in privacy that she had never considered. Once, to fulfill one of his fantasies, they recorded themselves having sex, watched the video and deleted it.
He liked that practice and they began to do it periodically. It was not enough to watch him after intercourse and asked him to keep the videos. Jennifer, fearing losing their relationship, agreed on the condition of keeping them on the laptop because she knew a phone was more vulnerable to possible loss or theft.
The folder was hidden within ten more so that no one could see that most intimate part of the couple. They stopped recording each other to the same extent that the relationship, and the sex, deteriorated.
They finished, Jennifer gathered her things and in the same hurry forgot one of her most valuable belongings. He did not erase those images in which his face was the only protagonist. Coincidentally, he always recorded and his face never appeared.
***
Technologies and the digital scenario have become vehicles for the dissemination of information with greater scope, but also in an ideal scenario to exercise digital violence such as the dissemination of intimate photos or private information in an unauthorized manner.
According to the study "Violence against women and girls in the digital space what is virtual is also real", carried out by UN Women in 2020, that 73 percent of women in the world have been exposed or have experienced some type of violence online.
Of that number, 90 percent are victims of unauthorized digital distribution of intimate images.
Cuba is not far from this scenario, and therefore, legal frameworks try to stop a phenomenon that grows and mutates along with the new facilities of the web, or at least, aims to support the victim and give them the tools from the law, to defend themselves from a possible violation of their privacy.
"The most Magna Carta approved by Cubans in 2019 incorporated in Chapter VI: Guarantees of Rights, the right of every person to access their personal data in records, files or other databases and information of a public nature, as well as to interest their non-disclosure and obtain their due correction, rectification, Modification, update or cancellation. This marks a relevant turn on the road to ways of protecting the holders of personal information in a society that is computerized and moving towards digital transformation," said Doctor of Sciences Zahira Ojeda Bello in the article "Protect, also personal data", published in Cubadebate last year.
For Ojeda, the regulation assumes as its main characteristic "the recognition of human dignity as the supreme value that governs other rights and therefore the right to the protection of personal data, in accordance with postulate 40 of the Magna Carta".
"It defines essential definitions such as personal data, file, processing of personal data, responsible and in charge of the treatment, in addition to addressing the principles for its protection".
Article 48 states that "all persons have the right to respect for their personal and family privacy, their own image and voice, their honour and personal identity".
Likewise, article 41 states that the "Cuban State recognizes and guarantees to the person the inalienable, imprescriptible, indivisible, universal and interdependent enjoyment and exercise of human rights, in accordance with the principles of progressivity, equality and non-discrimination."
In addition, article 46 of the Constitution states that "all persons have the right to life, physical and moral integrity, liberty, justice, security, peace, health, education, culture, recreation, sport and their integral development".
For its part, Decree Law 370 "On the Computerization of Cuban Society", in Article 68 is considered a contravention associated with ICTs, "disseminating, through public data transmission networks, information contrary to the social interest, morals, good customs and integrity of people."
The penalty, according to article 70 of the decree itself, can be a fine of 3,000 Cuban pesos and, in the case of being a legal person, it can reach up to 10,000 Cuban pesos.
***
Since she left that house, Jennifer lives in fear. Your face can appear at any time, on any platform. She feels insecure. Sometimes she walks and if someone looks at a mobile, sees her and laughs, she thinks the worst.
He never knew the final fate of those videos, if he deleted them, or if they're still on that old HP laptop in a folder 10 years from now.
"What do I do if those videos are posted, without my permission, on social media, or if that private image runs through instant messaging channels?" Jennifer knows that content of this type goes viral and its traffic is impossible to stop.
***
In the article "Protect, also personal data", published in Cubadebate last year, the Doctor of Sciences Zahira Ojeda Bello, explained that phenomena such as the internet of things, cloud computing or big data, make data an important asset in constant growth, from the realization of daily activities that include electronic commerce, medical care, payment for services and banking transactions.
According to the academic of the House of Higher Studies tunera, the data "must be understood as all information from which a person is identified or can be identified." Including in this classification physical characteristics, academic, professional, labor, economic-financial, health, ideological, judicial and administrative data.
"The security measures of personal data, until now planned, are focused on protecting from the technical point of view the analog and virtual supports of the information, but not the owners of the data," said Ojeda, while underlining the existence of gaps when without their consent, their personal data arrive at another destination or are used for a different purpose for which they were initially transferred.
In 2021, the Personal Data Protection Law was approved, which determines "the main rights that must be taken into account to make effective the right to the protection of personal data, among which are the right of access, non-disclosure, rectification, updating, correction, modification or cancellation," he said.
According to the jurist, the relevance of the Personal Data Protection Law is also substantiated in "the progressive presence of Cuban citizens in the digital public space, verified both by the number of individuals connected to the internet by various means, as well as by the high number of mobile phone users and therefore linked to service platforms and procedures."
"This poses challenges for safeguarding the right, given the use, access and processing of an increasing number of personal information circulating unlimitedly, all in a context of connectivity and interoperability of technologies, as well as the digitization and computerization of such data," he said.
Although in most cases victims do not report violations of privacy in the digital scenario, they can do so and a process is initiated where the sanctions vary according to the current Penal Code. The victim also has a network of specialists who provide psychological support.
***
Jennifer has not re-recorded herself having sex. A woman's body is not a commodity; much less a public property. Sometimes he sends photos to his partner but at all times he takes care that the images do not show his face.
Little by little it has learned and takes advantage of the security algorithms of some messaging platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram with a private chat the latter, or the possibility of self-destruction of messages, notification to users in case someone takes a screenshot of the text and end-to-end encryption.
Four years have passed since then and, although he likes popularity and wants to be influencers, followers cannot grow because their intimacy is desecrated. That fear never leaves her.
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