Section VI
Privacy
Four Components of Privacy
- appropriation
- intrusion
- publicity of private facts
- false-light privacy
Appropriation
Right to Privacy
- mental suffering, embarrassment, and humiliation
- dies with the individual
- may be asserted by any person
Right to Publicity
- damage to economic interests
- may be passed on to heirs
- must be asserted by person with economic interest
Intrusion
- an ethical issue as much as a legal one
- whether or not published is irrelevant
- information obtained from a 3rd party generally protected
- no privacy in public
- use of hidden recording devices iffy
Publicity About Private Facts
- there must be publicity to private facts about an individual
- revelation must be offensive to a reasonable person
- material is not of legitimate public concern
False Light Privacy
- publication of material must put an individual in a false light - material must be substantially false
- false light would be offensive to a reasonable person
- publisher of the material at fault - usually similar to libel’s actual malice
Privacy and the Internet
Informational Privacy
- Truths about you that you have kept private
- Truths about you that have been revealed
Protections from Intrusion
- Electronic Communications Privacy Act - exceptions for sysops
- Encryption
Major Privacy Concerns Regarding Computers
- Issues of workplace surveillance and monitoring of digital communications
- intrusion
- Issues of transaction-generated data and access to electronic records
- disclosure
- Issues of electronic profiles
- appropriation when sold on market