May 1, 2007 - 9:05 PM
Detailed personal information on aspiring contestants for Gran Hermano was found posted on the Internet
The Supreme Court has ordered the producers of
‘Gran Hermano,’ the Spanish equivalent of the UK Channel 4 series ‘Big Brother,’ to pay a fine of 1 million € for holding on to personal information about aspiring contestants without their knowledge. The Spanish version is broadcast on Telecinco.
The ruling, which cannot be appealed, comes after a complaint registered by the Spanish Data Protection Agency that the production company, Zeppelin Televisión S.A., had information on 7,000 candidates, including details of their likes and dislikes, ideology, religious beliefs, health, and even sex lives. The information on each person also included notes and comments from production staff, many of them offensive.
The Agency placed the complaint after finding the file posted on the Internet.
The court threw out Zeppelin’s argument that the data collection agency they contracted should have sole responsibility.
TypicallySpanish
