A Spanish company imposed facial recognition to enter its gyms. Result: Fine of 96,000 euros

The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) has imposed A sanction of 96,000 euros to the gyms chain exceeds to violate the data protection of its customers. The reason? Have imposed facial recognition as the only method of access to your gyms. The facts were denounced by Facua in 2023 and now the resolution has been known. What happened? On August 4, 2023, a claim was filed to SIDECU, a company based in A Coruña in charge of the gyms. According to the document (PDF), the Sports Center exceeds Entrepuentes in Seville was “denying access to the facilities” because a new access method had been implemented through a facial recognition system. “ The complainant considered that this access was “invasive about his intimacy” and “excessive for access to said establishment.” Until the implementation of the facial recognition system, which had not been notified to the partners and was mandatory, it was possible to enter the gym using a card. This claim was added two more and, finally, in September 2023, Facua denounced SIDECU. The defense. Sidec defended himself wielding that he did not store images of the users, but generated a facial pattern through an algorithm patented by the company that developed the system. According to the gyms chain, this “template” was not enough to identify users or deduce their physical characteristics. For SIDECU, this was enough for the system to meet the RGPDbut the truth is that no. The first error. Misunderstand the regulations, thus breaking article 9 of the RGPD. Article 4.14 of the RGPD establishes that biometric data are “personal data obtained from a specific technical treatment, related to the physical, physiological or behavioral characteristics of a natural person that allow or confirm the unique identification of said person, such as facial images or dactyloscopic data.” According to article 9 of the same regulation, the treatment of “biometric data aimed at uniquely identifying a natural person” is prohibited. Image | Ryan Hoffman The second error. Impose the system and not warn, thus breaking article 13 of the RGP. Not only did it not warn users, but facial recognition was the only way to access the establishments and there was no other real option, thus entering the game: consent was not free. It is true that the company ended up implementing an alternative access system (teaching the ID at the door), but its arrival was later to claims. Do not warn users breaches article 13 of the GDPR. The third terror. Do not evaluate the risks, finally breaking article 35 of the RGPD. According to the sentence, SIDEC did not justify why it was necessary to implement this system, above all, less invasive and equally effective alternatives. The AEPD states that the company did not carry out the impact assessment in the protection of personal data (when it was not dealing with personal data) and that it acted without fraud, but negligently and without “the special diligence that is enforceable to this type of treatments.” The sanctions. Three, one for each article violated: 80,000 euros for violating article 9 of the RGPD, 30,000 euros for not having informed users in advance (article 35) and 50,000 euros for not having prepared the impact assessment on personal data protection (article 9). In total, a penalty of 160,000 euros that, due to the recognition of the responsibility and the Sidecu’s soon lamp, has remained at 96,000 euros. Cover image | Gold’s Gym Nepal In Xataka | Unsuspected fine for the European Commission in Europe: it violated its own General Data Protection Regulation

The new obsession in gyms is also a clue about the future of the exercise

It is the New Fitness World Fever: competitions that carry exercises and, therefore, very specific training. By comparison, although these exercises settle their bases in traditional training, make crossfit or calisthenics They look outdated or rough. A mixture of unique elements (competition, aesthetics and that philosophy of overcoming and stoicism so fashionable in the latest generation gyms) has become Hyrox In a phenomenon. We analyze Some of your keys. What is it. It is a competition that combines 8 kilometers of career with 8 functional exercises of strength and resistance. The exercises are always the same and include: skiing machine, thrust and drag of sleds, Burpees With long jumps, rowing, weight transport, strides with sandbags and medicinal ball throw. That is, a devastating mixture (but with exercises available to anyone) that combines strength, resistance and general athletic capacity. Worldwide success. Born in 2017 in Germany, in recent years he has experienced a great impulse (globally, more than 650,000 athletes train for competitions, and in 2025 more than 80 global careers are held in more than 30 countries and 85 cities). It currently has a wide margin of future growth: for example, it has just reached areas such as Canada, Australia and the Middle East, and the World Championships of discipline. Spain wants Hyrox. Spain is one of its largest areas of growth. The last edition, in Bilbao, congregated More than 8,000 competitors. In Malaga 2025 11,000 athletes from 40 countries participated, while in Hyrox Barcelona 2025 13,000 athletes were registered and 10,000 finished. In the 2024-2025 season, the discipline exceeded the 40,000 athletes registered in Spainconsolidating the country as one of the European referents in this discipline. The number of participants has grown by 1,900% since the first major national event in 2021, when 2,000 athletes were recorded. The secret of his fame. Why do you like a competition so much that is essentially a traditional fitness vitamin version? His hybrid nature It has a lot to do: the demanding of the competitions forces athletes to prepare not only force, with lifting and movements of large weights, but also resistance, with those eight kilometers that must be traveled between evidence. That makes it a Very complete and varied trainingand where no discipline should not be put aside. And also, without great technical demands: everyone can push a sled. On the other hand, the competition allows group or couples categories, which makes it more affordable. Class pride. Hyrox is one Registered trademarklike so many others associated with fitness. From the very Crossfit itself, which is not a generic word but a brand associated with official competitions and training, the popular Zumba, which has unleashed a real plague of imitators (in the end, it is the old man Gym-Jazz eighties in steroids). All this going through competitions that were ahead of Hyrox, such as Spartan Race or Ironman, and training systems such as F45 Training or Orangetheory Fitness. What does all this mean? That to train and compete in Hyrox you have to pay the fee that Hyrox architects decide to pay. This leads to official gyms and competitions of considerable price (the minimum cost of a career is usually around 70 euros), and by the hand, to the transformation of training into a piece of exhibition of good economic health that distance to Hyrox of formats (not registered) such as calistenia, which can be trained outdoors. Hyrox not only allows to show off a healthy way of life but also a well oxygenated portfolio. Training as Lifestyle. Linked to this last aspect, we have sport as an exhibition mode of a way of life, also vent, to which Hyrox international competitions help, in countries like Berlin or Rome. A circumstance that allows “healthy tourism”: travel to compete, and without neglecting what affirms Álvaro Taracena, CEO of the brand in Spain: “Nobody here looks at you badly for lifting less weight (…) to do something more dynamic, in the end you make friends with whom take“ Hyrox for Influencers. At a time when absolutely everything has to be Instagrameable To succeed, Hyrox has the elements to do so: It is completely training gamified and aimed at a specific objective (compete and improve brands in competitions, no abstractions such as “health”). His name resulton makes him Easy to google and labeland generates a feeling of belonging to a group. And lo Accessible competitions (With team modalities, without time limits) open the doors to anyone looking for more than sweating two days a week without a clear goal. As a business studied to the millimeter, of course, it is one of the elderly that has seen modern fitness Header | Hyrox In Xataka | Marathons are so extreme that our brain makes drastic decisions, how to consume itself

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