What Is Invasion Of Privacy? Legal Definition And Basics – Forbes Advisor – Technologist

Certain types of privacy invasions are very common and can give rise to civil lawsuits. Those are legal claims brought in court by victims to obtain monetary damages for both economic and nonfinancial losses, such as damage to reputation and the emotional distress that results.

Here are some common types of invasion of privacy.

Appropriation of Name or Likeness

Your name and likeness are considered to belong to you and are part of your private property. If someone appropriates them, or uses them without your permission for their benefit, this is an invasion of privacy. In some states, appropriation can occur only if someone uses your name or likeness for commercial use, so it’s important to understand the laws where you live.

If someone uses fake images to pretend a famous singer had endorsed their products when no such endorsement had occurred, this would be an example of appropriation of likeness. The celebrity in this case had a “right of publicity,” and their rights were not respected when their image was used without authorization.

When appropriation of likeness occurs, it’s generally possible to recover compensation for the commercial value of your name and likeness as well as for any profits or windfalls that occurred to the defendant as a result of the misuse of your private information.

Intrusion Upon Seclusion

When you have a reasonable expectation of privacy, you have the right not to be intruded upon by someone observing you, listening to you or inflicting themself upon you without your consent.

Many different behaviors could be examples of intrusion of seclusion including:

• someone repeatedly calling or visiting your home when they’ve been asked to stop
• someone observing you through your windows, through a hidden camera or using other unlawful means
• someone improperly intercepting your private telephone calls or letters
• someone improperly accessing your private records

If someone unlawfully intrudes upon your seclusion, you could be entitled to compensation for actual financial loss, such as medical bills if the stress of the situation necessitates that you seek therapy.

You also have the right to recover compensation for emotional distress, pain and suffering, and, in some cases, punitive damages if the court believes the defendant’s conduct truly went too far and the defendant behaved with egregious disregard for your right to privacy.

False Light

False light is very similar to a defamation claim. However, unlike a defamation case—which you can bring if someone libels or slanders you with false information—false light claims can be brought if someone shares information that isn’t technically false but that paints a falsely negative picture of you.

Typically, you can bring a false light claim if you can show:

• Someone published or shared information with reckless disregard for the truth.
• That information is considered by reasonable people to be highly offensive.
• The information paints you in a false light.

An example might be if your name was printed on a newspaper page next to a headline about crime being out of control, and the paper gave the impression that you were a criminal, thus painting you in a false light. Another example would be if a random doctor’s picture was shown in an article about medical malpractice statistics, which could imply that the doctor committed malpractice. The information shared is not false, but the context gives a false impression.

Public Disclosure of Private Facts

Finally, public disclosure of private facts occurs when private information is revealed without consent.

This is an invasion of privacy whenever the information isn’t of public concern and when a reasonable person would find it offensive that the information was made public. It doesn’t matter if the information is truthful or not.

An example of public disclosure of private facts could include an individual sharing nude images of another person on a public social media platform.