Is Privacy Protection Enough?

The recent News of the World phone hacking scandal highlights the failure of the existing regulatory regime to protect "the right to be let alone" in the digital age. This book investigates English privacy protection. It analyses pre- and post- Human Rights Act 1998 case law to find out whether the action of breach of confidence has expanded as it relates to privacy protection. It compares English privacy protection to the French privacy remedy and to Strasbourg decisions. It looks at whether the current law provides sufficient protection; also whether the debate about a separate tort of privacy is wrong, and whether the action for breach of confidence should coexist with an independent tort of privacy. The book concludes that as new technologies and changing social behaviour have again redefined the boundaries of private life, a privacy Act may be useful in consolidating the different doctrinal shifts following the commencement of the Human Right Act 1998 (HRA). It may also fill the gaps created if the HRA is abolished and in fit in with the new legal landscape. The analysis in this book should be useful to anyone with an interest in this area.