Your Privacy Rights : Data Protection Act and Privacy Laws

We live in an information age and it seems that everything we want to know about anybody is available, whether on the internet or in public records – you just have to know how to access it. It is quite a scary thought and, hackers and identity thieves aside, we are protected from unwanted intrusion into our private lives by The Human Rights and Privacy rules.

It is interesting to note that, until recently, there were no Privacy Laws in the UK. However, The Human Rights Act introduced sweeping changes under the auspices of Article 8; this gives us absolute Privacy Rights and allows us to take action through the Courts against any person, company or organisation that would seek to publish or otherwise use details of our private lives.

Why Do We Need Privacy?

Privacy is a basic need of human beings; we have a right to privacy in order to ensure our mental, physical, spiritual and emotional well-being. We all have the intrinsic need to be able to conduct our lives without unwanted intrusion of the press or the authorities; to be able to carry on our relationships behind closed doors and without the harassment of the press. We only have to remember the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and to think how her life was so blighted by an over-eager media, to see that the privacy rules that now cover us were long overdue.

The Public has a Right to Know!

Do they? Are we so starved of entertainment that we must become a nation of gossips hungry for any bit of dirt that can be raked up? Does it matter which celebrity is having an affair or is battling with addiction; personally, I don’t think so.

I do think that we have a right to know how the Government is spending our hard-earned tax money, and how the Security Services are using information gained about us, but I think that is where our rights end, from a moral point of view.

Not a Sudden Change

The introduction of Article 8 of the Human Rights Act was not the first piece of legislation to set our rights down; there were various laws already in place that enabled us to protect certain information from public consumption:

• The Consumer Credit Act
• The Data Protection Act
• The Protection from Harassment Act

These Acts, among others, guaranteed our rights when it came to certain information or situations. For instance, the Data Protection Act ensured that any company holding, or planning to hold, personal information about its customers was required to issue a Privacy Notice guaranteeing that the information would not be released for public or private consumption. It also gave us a right to sue the offending person or company if they failed to keep to their word. However, the Acts did not give us a blanket Right to Privacy.

What about Freedom of Information?

This is a question that the Courts, Academics and Media have been pondering. How do we balance Freedom of Information, which is also guaranteed by The Human Rights Act, with the individual’s Right to Privacy? I think it comes down to one basic thing; the expectation of Privacy. If the person, be they royalty, celebrity or your next-door neighbour had the expectation that their actions would remain private, and there was no public need for the information to be published (for instance, they are not a criminal or terrorist) then they have a Right to Privacy that should be defended with the full force of the law.

There may be people who will disagree with me, I don’t know, but personally I think there are more important things in the world to worry or hear about than the personal habits of the latest Hollywood darling.