Treat your woman as if she were a simple sexual object. And even more degrading if possible, trying to manipulate her unconsciously into agreeing to have relationships through the techniques of marketing digital. In the shelter of the internet, some companies have been born that use psychological pressure as a form of business. Mainly, they are aimed at capturing their will, although the services they offer can be hired by anyone.

One of those who have published different pages is based on the fact that the sentimental partner, upon payment to society, downloads an apparently harmless link that he then has to send to her via email or WhatsApp. When you open it, the hyperlink will start to track your browser through the cookies. From that moment on, she will begin to receive subliminal messages that encourage her to have sex. The service is based on what is known as retargeting in advertising, which consists of re-impacting users who have already interacted with a website.

A way of acting that can have legal consequences for the person who thinks that his wife must satisfy his sexual desires at all costs. This is how Paz Lloria, professor of Criminal Law at the University of Valencia, considers it, explaining that the facts could fit into the “crime of hacking”Provided for in articles 179 bis and 179 ter of the Penal Code. These precepts, which sanction computer intrusion, could apply, respectively, to the company that offers the service and the person who hires it, since they punish access to the data or the system (software and the hardware) of another without their consent.

Professor Lloria warns that, regardless of what the person who hires this service is pursuing, there are doubts that the company can really stoke the sexual desire of women through the constant bombardment of information. Thus, she explains that it would be “difficult” to speak of a crime of coercion because it would fail the requirement of “psychological violence” to force her to do something against her will. A budget that requires the criminal type of article 172.

And in the event that the woman finally agrees to have sexual relations with her partner, it does not seem that one can speak of a lack of consent, says Luis Puertas, head of Civil Law at the Martín Molina Abogados y Economistas law firm. In other words, “the vice” when giving authorization to receive subliminal messages through the cookies It cannot be “directly and automatically projected” onto approval for sexual activity. “The use of certain techniques of marketing, even if it has not been authorized, it cannot be considered sufficient without further consideration to revoke consent ”.

However, this does not imply that there is not “a clear” violation of the regulations on data protection, argues the lawyer. And this due to “the use of personal and private information and the lack of real and prior consent for it by the affected person.”

An opinion shared by David Ferrete, manager of the Privacy, Risk and Compliance area of ​​Ecix Group. The lawyer explains that the company could incur in an “infraction” in the matter “because it does not obtain the consent of the subject who receives the publicity for the installation of the cookies and other monitoring devices ”. Nor is the person receiving the advertising informed “of how and for what purpose their personal information will be processed. Both are fundamental requirements of the regulations ”, he points out.

And it is that, a “basic principle” of the legislation in question is that of “transparency”, which is incompatible with an activity that seeks “the concealment, deception and manipulation of the person through the use of their personal data ”, Explains Ferrete. In addition, the company would violate “the law of services of the information society and electronic commerce” that regulates the use of cookies.

In the words of the Ecix Group lawyer, the business of stoking women’s sexual desire through digital marketing techniques “is contrary to Spanish data protection regulations, the European Regulation and violates the privacy rights of the person to the one to be manipulated ”.

Precisely, the Spanish Agency for Data Protection has recently sanctioned a company with 8,000 euros for not properly informing users about the cookies. In procedure PS / 00385/2020, the body takes into account that, although there was a manager on the company’s website that allowed cookies to be accepted and rejected, it was not executed correctly. And this because you had to tolerate them all to continue browsing. In addition, they did not indicate which ones the web used. On the other hand, unnecessary cookies were loaded without taking any action and there was no informational banner on the main page of the site.

Therefore, and although there is no jurisprudence on the use of this type of web page that, fundamentally, is aimed at objectifying women, its object collides with the legal system. And it is that, as a current judgment of the Supreme Court has said, “this new cyberspace of social interaction weakens the privacy protection frameworks, making people more vulnerable when, due to improper access to their personal data, they lose control about his private life ”.

Phone harassment

The constant making of calls to a person or the repeated sending of messages, as well as improperly using their data so that others can contact them, are some of the behaviors punished by the Penal Code. As Laura Echarri, lawyer at Proluco Abogados & Economistas explains, these facts constitute the crime of stalking of article 172 ter. The offense consists of harassing a person to the point of being forced to change their contact number, email, residence or place of work. And it usually occurs, especially in the field of relationships between ex-partners.