Recently in Privacy Law Category

Victims of the latest internet craze known as 'revenge porn' are seeking a change in the law that would provide greater protection from ex-lovers who post naked images and videos online without their permission.

The practice was once the preserve of the ex-lovers of Hollywood celebrities, who would trade pornographic videos of famous stars for money and notoriety in the most extreme form of kiss-and-tell.

Famous victims of the practice included heiress Paris Hilton, as well as TV celebrity Kim Kardashian, and more recently X-factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos.

Six European countries have launched a process to investigate Google with a view to issuing penalties consistent with their national laws, after it failed to make any changes to its privacy policies, reports Reuters.

Google consolidated more than 60 privacy policies into a single policy last year, to combine data collected about individual users of websites including Google search, Google+, YouTube and Gmail.

At the time 29 data protection agencies in Europe launched a joint enquiry, led by CNIL of France. The group enquiry concluded in October that Google's new policy presented individuals with a 'high risk' of their privacy being breached, and invited Google to make changes to the policy by February.

Ned RocknRoll, the 34-year-old husband of Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet, was in the High Court in London yesterday seeking to prevent the publication in national newspapers of a series of semi-naked photographs of himself, reports The Daily Mail.

Mr RocknRoll, a nephew of multi-billionaire Sir Richard Branson, was photographed in a state of semi-undress indulging in what he described as 'schoolboy antics'.

However, the photos found their way onto Facebook and almost into the pages of the national press.

An Austrian student group has announced plans to sue Facebook for failing to do enough to protect the privacy of its users.

The group, called Europe-v-Facebook, has been lobbying Facebook for better privacy functionality for the past year.

It has now said that following the company's failure to respond appropriately, it would launch a legal action in Ireland, where the company has its European headquarters.

It is understood that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are to instruct lawyers to commence proceedings in France against a photographer who secretly took pictures of Kate Middleton topless by a swimming pool, reports The Daily Telegraph.

The photographs, which initially appeared in a French gossip magazine, have now been published widely on the internet and in several publications including The Daily Star in Ireland.

The legal action is also likely to name the French magazine that first published the photographs.

The Sun newspaper has risked legal action by the Royal Family after deciding to go ahead and publish naked photographs of Prince Harry taken recently in a Las Vegas hotel suite, according to Reuters.

The photographs were first published by celebrity gossip website TMZ.com and quickly circulated around the internet and worldwide press. 

The Government has defended its plans to extend police powers which would allow them to access telephone and email records, despite fears that it would lead to further invasions of privacy.

The Home Secretary Theresa May claims that the new so-called 'snooping laws' are necessary to help protect law-abiding UK citizens, and claimed that they could be used in future to break paedophile rings like that exposed recently in Rochdale.

The new laws would oblige telephone and internet providers to record customer phone calls and save emails sent and websites visited. However, the data would only be accessible by police, the security services and the Inland Revenue, allaying parliamentary fears that it could be abused by councils and other agencies.

Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, has revealed plans to force website operators to reveal the identity of users who post abusive and defamatory comments against others online.

The proposed approach has been announced in advance of the second reading of the Defamation Bill, which is scheduled in Parliament next week, and comes in the wake of several high-profile 'online abuse' cases.

This week a woman abused online won the right to receive the IP addresses and subscriber information of trolls who ruthlessly abused her on the social networking site, Facebook.

A new law which is designed to protect the privacy of internet users has had little effect on websites, according to a survey by accountancy firm KPMG.

The European Union directive on online privacy came into force here in the UK on 26 May and requires websites to notify their users of their intention to use 'cookies' when they browse their site.

Cookies are small software files installed by a website onto a user's computer to monitor the use of the site and to feedback other information. Some cookie data is then sold by websites to allow others to target advertising according to your browsing habits.

The Attorney General Dominic Grieve has warned internet users that the law will crack down on abusers posting on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, in the same way as it would should such activity take place in the street.

The warning came after a series of high-profile cases involving postings made on micro-blogging sites. In one case a student who mocked football star Fabrice Muamba after he collapsed and nearly died in a game was jailed for 56 days for a racially aggravated public-order offence.

In another, a blogger who threatened to force excrement through the letterbox of a local councillor was handed 80-hours' community service.

The disgraced private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed after it was revealed that he had hacked the telephone messages coming out of Clarence House, has told the Supreme Court that it is 'completely wrong' to suggest that he is in any way protecting his former employer.

Mr Mulcaire is fighting an order stating he must reveal who at the News of the World instructed him to intercept voicemails on behalf of the paper.

He denied that his action to defend the order was motivated in any way by a desire to defend his former employers or to protect former colleagues at the paper.

The former first minister for Scotland, Lord McConnell has been informed by Scotland Yard that his phone and those of his son and daughter may have been hacked by disgraced former newspaper the News of the World.

The news has prompted Lord McConnell to commence legal action against the paper's publishers, News International.

The former leader of Scottish Labour was told by police investigating phone hacking that his details were found in paperwork recovered from Glenn Mulcaire.

Rupert Murdoch took to the stand at the Leveson enquiry yesterday to answer questions relating to media influence over politicians.

During a three-and-a-half hour session Mr Murdoch faced calls to reveal details of a perceived cover-up by his company, News International, over phone hacking.

The media tycoon was asked by Lord Justice Leveson to publish the advice given to News International by criminal law firm Burton Copeland, who conducted an internal investigation into phone hacking in 2007.

The newspaper regulator Ofcom has announced that it will investigate the hacking of private email accounts by journalists working at Sky.

The announcement comes after Sky admitted to the Leveson enquiry into media ethics that it had hacked the email account of John Darwin, the man who faked his own death and later reappeared living abroad. The organisation also admitted hacking the email account of a suspected paedophile.

The head of Sky News, John Ryley, admitted to the Leveson enquiry that his journalists had broken the law; however, in questioning he added: "I think it's highly unlikely in the future that Sky will consider breaking the law... I'm pretty much ruling it out."

Senior MPs representing both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have spoken out to criticise a proposed new law which would see internet service providers and phone companies obliged to surrender personal records to monitoring agencies.

The plans under consideration would allow the Government to know who people call, when they call, them and how long they spend on the phone. The Government would also be given powers to see what internet sites had been visited by individuals.

However, to access the content of emails or phone calls the authorities would still need a warrant from a court.