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Rhonda Ave S. Vivares and Sps. Margarita and David Suzara vs. St. Theresa'S College, Mylene Rhea Escudero and John Does

STC barred two graduating students from commencement exercises after discovering photos posted on Facebook showed the students in their undergarments. The students' parents filed a petition for a writ of habeas data, claiming their daughters' right to privacy was violated. However, the court found no violation of privacy occurred because the students failed to use Facebook's privacy settings to limit access to the photos. As the photos were not private posts, the students had no expectation of privacy, so the writ of habeas data was denied.

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198 views

Rhonda Ave S. Vivares and Sps. Margarita and David Suzara vs. St. Theresa'S College, Mylene Rhea Escudero and John Does

STC barred two graduating students from commencement exercises after discovering photos posted on Facebook showed the students in their undergarments. The students' parents filed a petition for a writ of habeas data, claiming their daughters' right to privacy was violated. However, the court found no violation of privacy occurred because the students failed to use Facebook's privacy settings to limit access to the photos. As the photos were not private posts, the students had no expectation of privacy, so the writ of habeas data was denied.

Uploaded by

Jay Cezar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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RHONDA AVE S. VIVARES and SPS. MARGARITA AND DAVID SUZARA vs. ST.

THERESA’S COLLEGE, MYLENE RHEA ESCUDERO and JOHN DOES


G.R. No. 202666, September 29, 2014

FACTS:

Nenita Julia Daluz and Julienne Vida Suzara, both minors, were graduating high school
students at St. Theresa's College (STC), Cebu City. Sometime in January 2012,
together with several others, they took pictures of themselves clad only in
undergarments while they were changing into their swimsuits for a beach party they
were about to attend. These pictures were then uploaded by Angela Lindsay Tan on her
Facebook profile. Mylene Rheza Escudero, a computer teacher at STC’s high school
department, learned of the said pictures posted online from her students. Using STC’s
computers, Escudero’s students logged in to their respective personal Facebook
accounts and showed her photos of the concerned students. Thereafter, Escudero
reported the matter and showed the photos to Kristine Rose Tigol, STC’s Discipline-in-
Charge, for appropriate action. After investigation, STC found the concerned students to
have deported themselves in a manner proscribed by the school’s Student Handbook.
As part of their penalty, the said students were barred from joining the commencement
exercises scheduled. A week before graduation, Angela’s mother filed a Petition for
Injunction and Damages before the RTC of Cebu City against STC, et al., to enjoin STC
from implementing the sanction that precluded the students from joining the
commencement exercises. The RTC issued a TRO allowing the students to attend the
graduation ceremony, to which STC filed a motion for reconsideration. Despite the
issuance of the TRO, STC, barred the sanctioned students from participating in the
graduation rites because its motion for reconsideration on the issuance ofthe TRO
remained unresolved. Thereafter, petitioners filed before the RTC a Petition for the
Issuance of a Writ of Habeas Data, which was dismissed.

ISSUES:

(1) Whether or not a writ of habeas data should be issued.

(2) Whether or not there was an actual or threatened violation of the right to
privacy in the life, liberty or security of the minors involved in this case.

HELD:

Petitioners are not entitled to the issuance of a writ of habeas data as the victims’ right
to informational privacy was not violated. 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. It is an
independent and summary remedy designed to protect the image, privacy, honor and
information of an individual. Before it can be issued, the existence of a person’s right to

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informational privacy must be proved and there must be an actual or threatened
violation of the right to privacy in life, liberty or security of the victim. Moreover, before
one can have an expectation of privacy in his or her online social network activity, such
as that in Facebook, it is first necessary that said user, in this case the children of
petitioners, manifest their intention to keep certain posts private, through the utilization
of privacy tools to prevent access thereto or to limit its visibility. Verily, Facebook has
different privacy tools designed to regulate the accessibility of a user’s profile, as well as
information uploaded by the user. In fact, Facebook users have the ability to customize
their privacy settings, with this they can broaden or limit the visibility of his or her
specific profile content, statuses, and photos from another user’s point of view.
However, in the case at hand, petitioners failed to show that the photos of ther
daughters were private posts. Thus, they cannot invoke the protection attached to the
right to informational privacy.

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