Right to Privacy

Subscribe to Right to Privacy via RSS

The Joint Committee on Human Rights has launched an inquiry into the right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the “Digital Revolution”. The inquiry will examine whether further safeguards to regulate the collection, use, tracking, retention and disclosure of personal data by private companies are required to protect human rights in the new digital age.

The key human right considered to be at risk is the right to private and family life under Article 8.

The Committee has also stated that freedom of expression (Article 10), freedom of assembly and association (Article 11) and prohibition of discrimination (Article 14) are also deemed to be at risk.

The Committee are now in the process of collecting written evidence of the threats posed to human rights by the processing of personal data by companies, and instances where those rights have been breached. The Committee have raised the following five questions and requested responses to be submitted online by 31 January 2019:

Continue Reading Joint Committee on Human Rights launches inquiry into Article 8 and the digital revolution

In the battle between protecting children’s right to privacy and allowing publishers to exercise their freedom of expression, recent case law has seen children’s rights triumph.

The case of Weller and Others v. Associated Newspapers Limited involved the publication of unpixelated photographs of three children aged 10 months to 16 years, who also happened to be the children of Paul Weller, an English singer, songwriter and musician. An action was brought for damages for misuse of private information, breach of the Data Protection Act, and an injunction preventing the Mail Online from publishing any further images.

The case saw the Court of Appeal uphold the Court of First Instance’s judgment in favour of the children claimants on the grounds that they had a reasonable expectation of privacy, and their Article 8 right to a private and family life outweighed the defendant’s Article 10 right to freedom of expression and information.
Continue Reading The battle between children’s right to privacy vs. publisher’s freedom of expression