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Law of Privacy in a Nutshell

NCJ Number
141225
Author(s)
R E Smith
Date Published
1993
Length
63 pages
Annotation
This handbook summarizes relevant legal information pertaining to the right of privacy.
Abstract
Privacy invasions can involve constitutional law, tort law, contracts, criminal law, civil procedure, and administrative law. An 1890 law review article, known as the Brandeis-Warren article, gave birth to privacy tort law as a reaction to new technologies of the day. Various court decisions during this century have recognized a right to bodily privacy, a right of action and a right to privacy, and declared that the tort of invasion of privacy has four distinct branches. These cover the widespread disclosure of intimate facts about a person, personal information or photographs published out of context, the commercial use of a person's name or face without consent, and physical trespass. Defenses are built according to the branch of the tort invasion, the extent to which there was consent, whether the defendant is a publication claiming freedom of speech protections, and whether the disclosure was part of a privileged communication. Three new areas of technology to be studied in the 1990's include transactional data banks, communications, and biotechnology. 148 notes

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