Action for misuse of private information and/or breach of confidence.
Held: Information relating to the events leading to the removal of a Royal Navy warship commander from that role fell outside the ambit of his private or personal life.
This question of whether this was a private life issue was considered in the context of the a claim under article 8 and/or for breach of confidentiality in relation to investigations by the defendant into complaints about Commander Axon’s conduct as a naval officer. It was accepted that his was a public role, and that his removal from command of a vessel was a ‘public matter’. However, it was argued on his behalf that the reasons for his removal were matters in which he had a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Nicol J observed that the claimant did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy are relevant to the present case. First, see, the case concerned: ‘the claimant’s role in a very public position. That does not mean that there is nothing about his performance in that role which would attract a reasonable expectation of privacy, but it sets an important context.’
Second, the misconduct in question was both serious and material to the stage 1 question.
Third, the serious and unusual event was bound to become a public fact,
Fourth, the security markings on the relevant personnel documents did not preclude the argument that the claimant did not in fact have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information that it contained.
Judges:
Nicol J
Citations:
[2016] EWHC 787 (QB), [2016] EMLR 20
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
See Also – Axon v Ministry of Defence QBD 19-Apr-2016
Order for costs following principal judgment. . .
Cited – NT 1 and NT 2 v Google Llc QBD 13-Apr-2018
Right to be Forgotten is not absolute
The two claimants separately had criminal convictions from years before. They objected to the defendant indexing third party web pages which included personal data in the form of information about those convictions, which were now spent. The claims . .
Cited – ZXC v Bloomberg Lp CA 15-May-2020
Privacy Expecation during police investigations
Appeal from a judgment finding that the Defendant had breached the Claimant’s privacy rights. He made an award of damages for the infraction of those rights and granted an injunction restraining Bloomberg from publishing information which further . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Information, Human Rights
Updated: 23 November 2022; Ref: scu.562789
