The Privacy Perspective

We would like to thank all our readers and subscribers for visiting TPP over the past year. Many thanks also to our contributors across the past year for their insight and expertise.

We are currently working on getting more informative pieces on privacy to you- including a series on what privacy law is like to practice as a professional (if you would like to contribute be sure to let us know) and our traditional Top 10 cases of the year across defamation, privacy law and data protection in association with the esteemed International Forum for Responsible Media Blog.

In the meantime, if any of our readers would like to guest write for us we encourage you to get in touch- we always welcome the opportunity to work with you.

Our case quote of the year is from the seminal case that was heard before the UK Supreme Court, ZXC v Bloomberg [2022] UKSC 5, finding that, as a legitimate starting point, criminal suspects have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the fact of an investigation at pre-charge stage:

…whether there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in the relevant information is a fact-specific enquiry which requires the evaluation of all circumstances in the individual case… We consider that the courts below were correct in articulating such a legitimate starting point to the information in this case. This means that once the claimant has set out and established the circumstances, the court should commence its analysis by applying the starting point.…

[And, as such:]

The courts below were correct to hold that, as a legitimate starting point, a person under criminal investigation has, prior to being charged, a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of information relating to that investigation and that in all the circumstances this is a case in which that applies and there is such an expectation.

at p.144 and 146 from Lord Hamblen and Lord Stephens

See our comment on the case for more information.

A very happy Christmas and New Year to you all.

The Privacy Perspective Founder and Editor, Suneet Sharma