The use of facial recognition software (“FRS”) in security and monitoring was thrust into the spotlight by the London Mayor Sadiq Khan, taking issue with a London developer over its installation in a King’s Cross site. In this post on the Privacy Perspective we consider the privacy and data protection issues with integrating FRS into security systems, an issue currently before the courts. Continue reading
Tackling hate speech- Intersecting approaches and the Raheem Stirling case
The case of footballer Raheem Stirling provides an avenue into the oft-overlooked issue of hate speech prevention and deterrence. The adequacy of English law in tackling hate speech, a nuanced and increasingly difficult to isolate issue. This is due to an instance of hate speech having the potential to cover a wide variety of legal actions and regulations. This in and of itself can be problematic; actions may not quite fit the scenario to which they apply or require careful adherence and scrutiny to ensure a just outcome. Continue reading
Big brother is watching you, in compliance with the European Convention of Human Rights
Revisiting the case of Big Brother Watch and Others v. the United Kingdom
The operation of the UK’s surveillance services, MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the Metropolitan Police Service and their interaction with human rights (“Convention rights”) have historically been obscure to safeguard the interests of national security. The specifics of policy and practices when conducting national surveillance and its interaction with the private lives citizens have only come to light since the whistleblowing of Edward Snowden in 2013, catalyzing closer scrutiny of their potential to impinge upon the democratic freedoms.
Top 10 Defamation Cases of 2017, a selection – Suneet Sharma
This is my selection of the most legally and factually interesting defamation cases from England, Australia and the United States from 2017. This post was originally produced for the INFORRM website and is reproduced on TPP for reference.
Citation: INFORRM: UK surveillance practices, privacy issues and ghost protocol
INFORRM has a compelling article from Paulo Garcia covering the practice of UK surveillance arm GCHQ in monitoring encrypted communications platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook. Continue reading
A brief introduction to the concept of privacy under English Law – Parts I, II & III
Below we present a compiled summary of our highly popular introduction to the concept of privacy under English Law, this covers early developments, the integration of private individuals rights, the widening of the concept and early 21st Century data protection issues: Continue reading
Look out for the new incoming ePrivacy Regulation and its GDPR integration
The European Data Protection Board issued a statement on 13 March 2019 urging the European Authorities to implement the new ePrivacy Regulation (the “Regulation”).
The Regulation itself sits alongside the existing GDPR framework and focuses on email marketing and cookies consent.
Debate has been generated around the extent to which the Regulation and the GDPR practically sit alongside each other to ensure that the, now onerous, data protection regime does not duplicate obligations. The Panopticon Blog has an excellent post covering this issue from Robin Hopkins. Continue reading
Citation: News: Specialist Media Barristers’ Chambers One Brick Court announces dissolution
Sad news indeed from the media law Bar, One Brick Court has announced its closure. Our best wishes are with members of Chambers and our greatest respect to its distinguished reputation over 130 years of practice.
One Brick Court, the long established set of specialist media law barristers has announced today that it is to dissolve, with effect from 24 June 2019. The set has explained that the dissolution is due to “recent unexpected departures and a retirement“.
View original post 248 more words
Citation: Phone Hacking: time the police stepped in – Brian Cathcart
An excellent piece on recent developments in phone hacking cases- a consideration of the News of the World litigation settlements by Brian Cathcart
Evidence against executives and editors is piling up in the civil courts, but newspapers are just buying their way out of trouble. The right place for this is the criminal courts, which means the Metropolitan Police must act.
View original post 1,310 more words
Citation: Article 8 and the “outside world”: privacy, reputation and employment – Hugh Tomlinson QC
An excellent and highly insightful piece written by Hugh Tomlinson QC on the application of the Article 8 right to privacy and a reconciliation with domestic law.
The Article 8 right to respect for private life has many facets and has often seemed in danger of uncontrolled expansion. The Court of Human Rights has often noted that private life is “not susceptible to exhaustive definition”, embracing “multiple aspects of the person’s physical and social identity”.
View original post 1,313 more words
The Privacy Perspective 