Privacy and misuse of private information

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Privacy law in the UK comprises several elements:

  1. •

    the right to respect for a private and family life in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998)

  2. •

    the tort of misuse of private information, which protects citizens from unwarranted intrusion (Campbell v MGN), and

  3. •

    provisions in the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (PHA 1997), which protect individual privacy

There is no single, overarching right to privacy in English law. However, HRA 1998 and the incorporation of Article 8 of the ECHR into domestic law mean that aspects of private life can be protected from unwarranted intrusion.

Right to a private and family life

Article 8(1) of the ECHR protects a person’s right ‘to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence’. Underlying this right is the value attached by society to human dignity and autonomy; the effective protection of Article 8 rights enables individuals to pursue their own lives and to form relationships.

The Strasbourg jurisprudence

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