Data and privacy

Thinking - Blog

Reporting the family courts - new guide published

Published on 01 August 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

A valuable guide has just been published which sets out the law governing access to, and reporting of, the family courts.

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Thinking - Blog

A "tenuous claim to privacy": Hutcheson v News Group

Published on 23 July 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Can you expect to keep a second family private? That was the ambitious hope of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson.

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Thinking - Blog

Reporting the Courts: a view on postponement orders

19 July 2011

The principle of open justice has been ardently promoted in our society for many years, as was confirmed by Lord Hewart in R v Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy who said that “it is not merely of some importance but it is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done”.

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Thinking - Blog

Details of the new inquiry into press regulation and phone-hacking

Published on 13 July 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

It had been thought that the Prime Minister had pledged to set up two separate inquiries: one into phone-hacking and one into press regulation more generally.

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Thinking - Blog

Public inquiries into privacy and press regulation

Published on 10 July 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

BBC Radio 4's PM programme's 'Privacy Commission' has finished hearing evidence and will presumably be publishing its report shortly.

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Thinking - Blog

Phone hacking scandal reaches a new plane

Published on 06 July 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

If, as seems likely, it proves true that the News of the World did indeed hack into the voicemail messages of the abducted teenager Milly Dowler, the phone hacking saga moves onto an entirely new plane.

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Thinking - Blog

Disclosure of documents in privacy litigation

Published on 06 July 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

What documents is a claimant entitled to demand from a media defendant in a privacy case?

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Thinking - Blog

Justice Secretary expresses concern over MPs defying injunctions

Published on 16 June 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

The Times has today reported that the Justice Secretary Ken Clarke yesterday told the Joint Committee on the Defamation Bill that he was concerned about the growing habit of using parliamentary privilege to defy court gagging orders.

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Thinking - Blog

A former judge reflects on privacy injunctions

Published on 15 June 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Mr Justice Eady's interview last month by Joshua Rosenberg -

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Thinking - Blog

A digest of recent news (1) - UK judgments

Published on 30 May 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

For one reason and another, the blog has been unable to report on much of the recent news. This entry is an attempt to remedy the situation. Normal service should be resumed shortly.

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Thinking - Blog

Are privacy injunctions too restrictive?

Published on 13 May 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Has privacy law gone too far? It’s not just the editor of the Daily Mail who thinks so.

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Thinking - Blog

The effect of privacy injunctions on third parties

Published on 21 April 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

In general, an injunction made against a defendant does not affect a third party.

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Thinking - Blog

Workplace affairs are private - especially if one half of the couple has children

Published on 20 April 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

The Court of Appeal's judgment in ETK v News Group [2011] EWCA Civ 439 has prompted gasps of horror from some sections of the media.

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Thinking - Blog

Phone-hacking is not a hanging offence

Published on 15 April 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

In February Donald Trelford, the respected former editor of the Observer, wrote in the Independent that the phone-hacking saga was a case of "dog eats dog gone barking-mad".

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Thinking - Blog

The "half-lives" of celebrities: a theory of phone-hacking

12 April 2011

In today's Independent Dominic Lawson offers an interesting view on how phone-hacking was allowed to take hold at the News of the World.

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Thinking - Blog

Super Injunctions: committee reporting soon

Published on 08 April 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

By the end of this month we expect the committee investigating super injunctions to publish its report.

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Thinking - Blog

The EU Council’s Conclusions On Revising EU Data Protection Law — Why Did They Bother?

Published on 04 April 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

The super tanker that is the European Union legislative process is currently trying to turn itself round with a view to revising data protection law.

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Thinking - Blog

Another ruling on privacy injunctions

22 March 2011

Judgment was handed down today in a case where a privacy injunction was made in 2008.

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Thinking - Blog

Privacy in Tweets - the debate continues

Published on 22 March 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Addressing the Westminster Media Forum on the regulation of privacy and online media earlier today Baroness Buscombe, Chairman of the PCC, referred to the PCC's decision in Baskerville

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Thinking - Blog

Privacy and the Protection of Freedoms Bill

Published on 21 March 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

The Protection of Freedoms Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 11 February 2011, is the second part of the UK Coalition Government's mission to 'restore freedoms and civil liberties through the abolition of unnecessary laws'.

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Thinking - Blog

The legal protection of online identities

21 March 2011

Millions of people post comments on the web in response to articles, blogs and stories. Many do so anonymously.

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Thinking - Blog

Harassment by letter-writing

Published on 17 March 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Are letters capable of amounting to a course of conduct amounting to harassment?

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Thinking - Blog

Can employers spy on their employees?

11 March 2011

The US media have reported a number of instances in which companies have hired private detectives to spy on workers taking "sickies".

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Thinking - Blog

Anonymity order lifted in marital privacy case

28 February 2011

A High Court judge has lifted an anonymity order protecting the identity of a formerly married couple involved in a privacy dispute.

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Thinking - Blog

The Article 8 rights of sex offenders

24 February 2011

A recent decision of the Supreme Court has unleashed a populist wave directed at the European Court of Human Rights and European judges generally.

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Thinking - Blog

Forced sterilisation case heard in public

22 February 2011

On 15 February 2011 Hedley J ordered that a case proceeding in the Court of Protection which featured medical information of the highest sensitivity should be held in open court.

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Thinking - Blog

Max Mosley and the public interest in exposing hypocrisy

Published on 22 February 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

In an interesting interview with the Financial Times, the UK's most indomitable privacy claimant, Max Mosley, challenges the notion that there might be a public interest in exposing hypocrisy.

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Thinking - Blog

No privacy in Tweets

Published on 10 February 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Publicly accessible postings on Twitter and other social media are not private, according to rulings by the Press Complaints Commission.

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Thinking - Blog

ICO fines councils for losing laptops

10 February 2011

On 8 February 2011 the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) issued two monetary penalty notices for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act.

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Thinking - Blog

Supreme Court welcomes Twitter

08 February 2011

The use of Twitter is now officially sanctioned in the Supreme Court.

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Thinking - Blog

Shock decision: sportsman not unmasked

Published on 01 February 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

The identity of the sportsman officially known as JIH remains confidential.

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Thinking - Blog

Anonymity proposed for teachers accused by pupils

31 January 2011

The controversial Education Bill was published on 26 January 2011.

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Thinking - Blog

Blanket reporting restriction set aside by Court of Appeal

31 January 2011

The Court of Appeal has discharged an order the effect of which would have been to postpone the reporting of an important criminal case for several months.

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Thinking - Blog

Phone-hacking claims - a new legal pursuit

Published on 26 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

The pack of lawyers representing the alleged victims of phone hacking by the News of the World seems to grow on an almost weekly basis.

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Thinking - Blog

A mass outbreak of anonymity: CDE and FGH v MGN and LMN

Published on 20 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

It is not unusual for claimants in privacy cases to be anonymised. It is less common for defendants and distinctly unusual for non-parties.

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Thinking - Blog

ECtHR upholds Campbell v MGN

Published on 18 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Just under seven years after the House of Lords found by 3 to 2 against the Daily Mirror in the landmark privacy case by Naomi Campbell, the European Court of Human Rights has rejected MGN's attempt to persuade it that UK law was incompatible with Article 10.

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Thinking - Blog

No exclusion of bereaved families from 7/7 inquest

14 January 2011

The Divisional Court has refused the Government's application for judicial review of the 7/7 Coroner's decision not to exclude victims' families from the court during its private sessions.

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Thinking - Blog

7/7 footage withheld from public to protect privacy of victims and their families

14 January 2011

The Coroner conducting the inquest into the terror attacks in London on 7 July 2005 has ordered that certain footage shown in court of the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks should not be released to the media.

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Thinking - Blog

Super-injunctions - an update

Published on 14 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Super-injunctions are injunctions that prevent publication of the fact that the court has made an injunction.

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Thinking - Blog

Should the parties in privacy cases be anonymised? - a summary of the recent judgments

Published on 14 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Since the end of the summer at least eight judgments have considered whether the parties to successful applications for privacy injunctions should be anonymised.

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Thinking - Blog

Anonymity of egg and sperm donors

13 January 2011

A survey by Manchester Fertility Services highlights issues of privacy concerning egg and sperm donation.

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Thinking - Blog

No injunction for local authority that failed to give notice to media

Published on 12 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

A judge has refused to make an order gagging media organisations who were not given proper notice of the application for the order.

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Thinking - Blog

Media access to Court of Protection

Published on 12 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

The Independent newspaper has won the right to attend and report on a case in the Court of Protection.

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Thinking - Blog

UK referred to ECJ over internet privacy

Published on 12 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

On 30 September 2010 the European Commission announced that it referred the UK to the European Court of Justice for its alleged failure to implement EU laws on the confidentiality of electronic communications such as emails or internet browsing.

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Thinking - Blog

Use (and abuse?) of anti-terrorism powers by police

Published on 12 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

A Home Office report on the operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent legislation has revealed that in 2009/10 a total of 101,248 stop-and-searches were made pursuant to s40 of the Terrorism Act 2000, but not one of the stop-and-searches resulted in an arrest being made on a terrorism charge.

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Thinking - Blog

Computer hacker fined £21,000

Published on 11 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

A computer hacker who admitted offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 has been fined £21,000 and given a 36-week prison sentence suspended for two years.

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Thinking - Blog

New report on the 'Surveillance Society'

Published on 11 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

The Information Commissioner has expressed concern over the lack of scrutiny of new laws affecting privacy.

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Thinking - Blog

Undercover reporting - 'Cablegate'

Published on 11 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

On 20 December 2010 the Daily Telegraph published a report based on secretly recorded conversations with the Business Secretary Vince Cable.

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Thinking - Blog

Google escapes fine over Street View breach

Published on 11 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

Google's Street View service has escaped a financial penalty despite being found to breach the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).

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Thinking - Blog

Public access to documents in criminal cases

Published on 11 January 2011. By Keith Mathieson, Partner

The Administrative Court has upheld the decision of a district judge to refuse the press access to documents placed before a magistrates court in connection with extradition proceedings

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