Privacy ombudsman investigates legality of Kotkamies social media videos

Finland’s data protection ombudsman has launched an own-initiative investigation into videos published by social media creator Kotkamies, Yle reports. Kotkamies makes videos showing strangers becoming increasingly irritated. Several criminal reports have been filed over the videos.

Kotkamies is a man from Lahti who has published videos on YouTube and TikTok.

The data protection ombudsman is investigating whether the publishing activity complies with data protection legislation. The office has requested information about the grounds on which the creator of the Kotkamies account processes personal data when publishing the videos, and how the rights of the people involved are protected.

The investigation will also examine whether people shown in the videos were openly informed about the processing of their personal data, and whether they had the opportunity to request the removal of data from publications in which they can be identified.