Anyone old enough to remember the police drama on TV, “Hill Street Blues,” will remember the line, “Let’s be very careful out there.” There’s another reason for police to be “very careful out there” these days: if you’re identified as a police officer who has been abusive to protestors, you may find your personal details…
Category: Misc
Private Conversations and the Disclosure of Private Facts Tort
Eugene Volokh has a commentary on The Volokh Conspiracy that will likely surprise some people and inform: Occasionally, I see assertions that disclosing certain private information about someone — for instance, details of their sex lives, medical history, or financial affairs — would be tortious, even if the disclosure is in a private conversation. (See,…
Are We Too Hung Up on Privacy?
L. Gordon Crovitz discusses Jeff Jarvis’s book, Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live, on WSJ. He writes, in part: Congress is considering several privacy bills. But Mr. Jarvis calls it a “dire mistake to regulate and limit this new technology before we even know what it…
Privacy legal fights should focus on intrusion, not hurt feelings
Jessica Martin writes: Privacy lawsuits in the United States usually seek damages for revealing embarrassing but true facts by the media— the so-called “disclosure tort” — but this is a “poor vehicle for grappling with the problems of privacy and reputation in the digital age,” says Neil M. Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor…