Privacy

Quotes from caselaw 4: PJS v News Group Newspapers Limited [2016] UKSC 26 – privacy rights are broader than just confidentiality

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It is a rare case where an application for a interlocutory injunction succeeds despite an article on the subject already being published. Such was the case in PJS, one of the most significant English law cases concerning privacy law to date.

The leading judgment was handed down by Lord Mance. It concerned the grant of an injunction to keep details of an extra marital affair between a claimant of great renown being published by the press.

Lord Mance observes the fact that privacy is a zonal right justifying protection, differing in character from the right of confidentiality. The esteemed judge highlights previous cases at paragraphs 58 and 59 of the judgment, endorsing the well entrenched approach from the Court of Appeal.

He characterises privacy, rightly, as extending beyond the bounds of confidentiality. In doing so ones private life becomes a space that should remain, in certain circumstances, free from intrusion.

However, claims based on respect for privacy and family life do not depend on confidentiality (or secrecy) alone... “unwanted access to private information and unwanted access to [or intrusion into] one’s … personal space”

Lord Mance at p.58-59

Concluding Lord Mance opined on the capacity of the internet to change perceptions of privacy. He acknowledged that the courts need to remain cognizant of this. In doing so he affirmed the findings of previous caselaw, gave credence to commentators and noted the implications of tweeting and blogging:

 I also accept that, as many commentators have said, that the internet and other electronic developments are likely to change our perceptions of privacy as well as other matters – and may already be doing so. The courts must of course be ready to consider changing their approach when it is clear that that approach has become unrealistic in practical terms or out of touch with the standards of contemporary society. However, we should not change our approach before it is reasonably clear that things have relevantly changed in a significant and long-term way. In that connection, while internet access became freely available in this country only relatively recently, almost all the cases listed at the end of para 59 above were decided since that happened, and many of those cases were decided after blogging and tweeting had become common.

Lord Mance at p.70

TPP has commented further on the PJS case here.

Citation: INFORRM Blog, ZXC v Bloomberg LP: Privacy and Reputational Harm – Jeevan Hariharan

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The INFORRM Blog has an excellent post on the inter-related nature of privacy and reputational harms.

Whether an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy that outweighs the public interest in cases where there has been an investigation, but no charge, by the police is an imminent case before the Supreme Court in the case of ZXC v Bloomberg LP.

The case is before the UK Supreme Court on 30 November and 1 December next week and was cited by Hariharan in his analysis of the proximity between privacy and reputational harms.

The Court of Appeal judgment can be found here. The Court found that there could be a reasonable expectation of privacy in the fact of a police investigation. This builds upon notable caselaw such as the Cliff Richard case.

TPP number 30 on Feedspot – Top 35 Privacy Websites and Blogs

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We are delighted to be ranked 30 out of Feedspots top 35 blogs. TPP was ranked alongside law firms and authoritative blogs on privacy law.

According to Feedspot sites are ranked “by traffic rank, social media followers, domain authority & freshness.” The full list can be found here and is a must read for anyone interested in privacy law matters.

Citation: 5RB: European Court of Human Rights upholds Article 8 privacy breach in relation to reputation of a dead person

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In a case builds upon pre-existing caselaw on the rights of those who are deceased the European Court of Human Rights has found an article 8 breach in relation to news articles posted about a deceased Roman Catholic Priest.

ML v Slovakia 34159/17 concerned a number of articles published by three Slovakian newspapers about the historic sex offence convictions of the claimants son.

The Court found that the articles were inaccurate and sensationalist citing that: “However, it follows from what has been said above that the domestic courts failed to carry out a balancing exercise between the applicant’s right to private life and the newspaper publishers’ freedom of expression in conformity with the criteria laid down in the Court’s case-law.”

Concluding the Courts stated, applying Article 8:

“…dealing appropriately with the dead out of respect for the feelings of the deceased’s relatives falls within the scope of Article 8 of the Convention”.

Furthermore the Court stated a clear and concise view on the journalistic integrity of the reporting: “Although the journalists must be afforded some degree of exaggeration or even provocation, the Court considers that the frivolous and unverified statements about the applicants sons private life must be taken to have gone beyond the limits of responsible journalism” -p.47

5RB has an excellent case comment.

ICO launches consultation on the Draft Journalism Code of Practice

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The ICO’s consultation on its Draft Journalism Code of Practice has begun.

Be sure to have your say- the deadline to submit responses is 22 January 2022.

The Code covers privacy safeguards among many other topics. In particular, it covers the journalism exemption under the Data Protection Act 2018 and its broad exemption that disapplies requirements to holding and processing data.

Journalism should be balanced with other rights that are also
fundamentally important to democracy, such as data protection and the
right to privacy.

at p.4

The Code substantively addresses the safeguarding of journalism under the exemption, briefly touching on balancing a free press against privacy rights before going on to discuss how this balance is struck under data protection laws:

Why is it important to balance journalism and privacy?


It is widely accepted that a free press, especially a diverse press, is a
fundamental component of a democracy.

It is associated with strong and
important public benefits worthy of special protection. This in itself is a public
interest.

Most obviously, a free press plays a vital role in the free flow of

communications in a democracy. It increases knowledge, informs debates
and helps citizens to participate more fully in society. All forms of journalistic
content can perform this crucial role, from day-to-day stories about local
events to celebrity gossip to major public interest investigations.

A free press is also regarded as a public watch-dog. It acts as an important
check on political and other forms of power, and in particular abuses of
power. In this way, it helps citizens to hold the powerful to account.

However, the right to freedom of expression and information should be
balanced with other rights that are necessary in a democratic society, such
as the right to privacy. The public interest in individual freedom of expression
is itself an aspect of a broader public interest in the autonomy, integrity and
dignity of individuals.

The influence and power of the press in society, and the reach of the

internet, means that it is particularly important to balance journalism and
people’s right to privacy.

This code provides guidance about balancing these two important rights by
helping you to understand what data protection law requires and how to
comply with these requirements effectively.

at p.25

Quotes from caselaw 1: Campbell v MGN [2004] 2 AC 457 – The importance of privacy to liberty

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“Privacy lies at the heart of liberty in a modern state. A proper degree of liberty is essential for the well-being and development of an individual”

– Lord Nicholls, Campbell v MGN [2004] 2 AC 457 at [p.12]

This is part of our new “quotes from caselaw” series, looking to bring you short snippets from leading judgments on privacy, which highlight its importance and development.

Privacy Law Monthly Round Up – September 2021

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Headlines

Ben and Deborah Stokes’ privacy claim against The Sun for the highly intrusive article detailing traumatic events in the Stokes’ family past was settled on 30 August 2021, with the newspaper agreeing to publish an apology and pay substantial damages. Paul Wragg wrote about The Sun’s “nonsensical” defence for the Inforrm Blog, concluding that the only party spared the anguish of trial was the newspapers’ defence team.

Government and General legislative developments

The controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill had its second reading in the House of Lords this month. The Bill is notorious for its proposed restrictions on peaceful protest, which critics have predicted will have a discriminatory impact and breach the rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Broadened police powers would also enable the extraction of more information from mobile phones.

The Age Appropriate Design Code (aka the “Children’s Code”) entered into force on 2 September 2021 following a one year transition period. The Children’s Code explains to businesses how the UK GDPR, Data Protection Act and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations apply to the design and delivery of Information Society Services (“ISS”) – i.e social media, educational and gaming platforms – apply to children. The Children’s Code is the first of its kind worldwide, and has been welcomed by many as a positive development for keeping children safe online. The 15 standards that the Code sets can be found here.

Sticking with child safety online, Home Secretary Priti Patel launched a Safety Tech Challenge fund at the G7 meeting start of this month. Five applicants will be awarded up to £85,000 each to develop new technologies that enable to detection of child sexual abuse material online, without breaking end-to-end encryption.

The UK Government has launched a public consultation on data protection legislation reform following Brexit entitled Data: A new direction. The consultation is open until 19 November. Following the end of the Brexit transition period, the UK’s data protection regime, which had derived from the EU framework, will be transposed into domestic law known as the UK GDPR. The Government is seeking to use this opportunity to make some changes to the current regime. The Hawtalk Blog discusses how some of these proposals are unethical and unsafe. Further discussion can be found on the Panopticon Blog and the Data Protection report. 

Data Privacy and Data Protection

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has accused tech giants of undermining terrorist prevention efforts by virtue of their focus on end-to-end encryption. Writing in The Telegraph on the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, she said that it is “impossible in some cases” for the police to fulfil their role to protect the public. Given the pressure on tech giants to ensure users’ privacy, companies are unlikely to reshape their platforms to facilitate more extensive monitoring.

Apple has delayed its plan to scan its users’ iCloud images for child sexual abuse material. The proposed detection technology would compare images before they are uploaded to iCloud against unique “digital fingerprints” of known child pornographic material maintained by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. The plan was criticised by privacy groups because it involved using an individual’s own device to check if they were potentially engaged in criminal activity.

Surveillance

The Metropolitan Police have invested £3 million into new facial recognition technologies (FRT) that will greatly increase surveillance capabilities in the capital. The expansion of the Met’s technology will enable it to process historic images from CCTV feeds, social media and other sources in order to track down suspects. Critics argue that such FRT encroaches on privacy by “turning back the clock to see who you are, where you’ve been, what you have done and with whom, over many months or even years.” There is also concern that FRT can exacerbate existing racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. The UK’s Surveillance Camera Commissioner (SCC), Professor Fraser Sampson, has acknowledged that some FRT “are so ethically fraught” that it may only be appropriate to carry them out under license in the future.

NGO’s

Big Brother Watch published an opinion piece warning that the imposition of vaccine passports could reorganise Britain into a two-tier, checkpoint society. The article responds to the Scottish Parliament’s vote in favour of vaccine passports earlier this month. Wales has since followed Scotland and announced mandatory vaccination and COVID status check schemes. The English government has not yet committed to such a regime. The ICO has emphasised that data protection laws will not stand in the way of mandatory vaccination and COVID status checks, but rather facilitate responsible sharing of personal data where it is necessary to protect public health. 

Privacy International has considered how data-intensive systems and surveillance infrastructure, developed by national and foreign actors, in Afghanistan as part of developmental and counter-terrorism measures will fare under the Taliban regime.

From the regulator

ICO

The ICO has announced two fines this month;

  • A total of £495,000 was imposed against We Buy Any Car, Saga, and Sports Direct for sending more than 354 million “frustrating and intrusive” nuisance messages between them. None of the companies had permission to send recipients marketing emails or texts, making their behaviour illegal;
  • The Glasgow-based company DialADeal Scotland Ltd was fined £150,000 for the making of more than 500,000 nuisance marketing calls to recipients who had not given their permission to receive them.

The ICO has also released a communiqué from a meeting on data protection and privacy held by the G7 authorities at the start of the month. The meeting is closely aligned with the Roadmap for Cooperation on Data Free Flow with Trust announced by G7 Digital and Technology Ministers on 28 April 2021.

IPSO

IPSO has published a number of privacy rulings and resolutions;

IMPRESS

There were no IMPRESS rulings relating to privacy this month.

Cases

The Inforrm Blog has published an article detailing the continued decline in privacy injunction applications in England and Wales for 2021. There were only three applications in the first six months of the year, down from ten in 2020. All three applications were successful. Only 4% of the new issued cases on the Media and Communications List related to misuse of private information or breach of privacy.

No judgements relating to privacy have been handed down this month.

Written by Colette Allen

Colette Allen has hosted “Newscast’” on The Media Law Podcast with Dr Thomas Bennett and Professor Paul Wragg since 2018. She has recently finished the BTC at The Inns of Court College of Advocacy and will be starting a MSc in the Social Sciences of the Internet at the University of Oxford in October 2021.

Cricketer Ben Stokes and mother Deborah Stokes achieve settlement in privacy case against the Sun newspaper, securing rare unreserved apology

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Following the publication of an article in 2019 in the Sun newspaper concerning a family matter before the cricketer was born, Ben Stokes and his mother have achieved a settlement from the Sun newspaper.

Mother of Ben Stokes, Deborah Stokes commented: “The decision to publish this article was a decision to expose, and to profit from exposing, intensely private and painful matters within our family. The suffering caused to our family by the publication of this article is something we cannot forgive.

“Ben and I can take no pleasure in concluding this settlement with the Sun. We can only hope that our actions in holding the paper to account will leave a lasting mark, and one that will contribute to prevent other families from having to suffer the same pain as was inflicted on our family by this article.”

The family were represented by Brabners LLP. Paul Lunt, solicitor to Ben and Deborah Stokes and Head of Litigation, said “The Sun has apologised to Ben and Deborah. The paper has accepted that the article ought never to have seen the light of day. The apology to our clients acknowledges the great distress caused to Ben, Deborah and their family by what was a gross intrusion – and exploitation – of their privacy. Substantial damages have also been paid, as well as payment of legal costs.”

See the Brabners LLP press release here.

The Sun stated: “On 17 September 2019 we published a story titled ‘Tragedy that Haunts Stokes’ Family’ which described a tragic incident that had occurred to Deborah Stokes, the mother of Ben Stokes, in New Zealand in 1988. The article caused great distress to the Stokes family, and especially to Deborah Stokes. We should not have published the article. We apologise to Deborah and Ben Stokes. We have agreed to pay them damages and their legal costs.”

Coverage of the settlement can be found in the Guardian, Press Gazette and BBC Sport, amongst others.