Lord Neuberger says right to privacy not necessarily lost in ‘brave new world’

Lord Neuberger, President of the UK Supreme Court, has said the right to privacy is not necessarily lost simply because information is in the public domain.

Delivering a keynote lecture on technology and the law at the close of the British Irish Commercial Bar Association (BICBA) conference in Belfast, he added that, traditionally, information ceased to be confidential once in the public domain but that the position has been changed by the worldwide web.

He noted that in the world of hard copy, information would be hard to find even just a year after publication.

“Yesterday’s newspaper would be today’s fish and chip wrapping and tomorrow’s waste material,” he said.

“However, in the brave new world of web pages, yesterday’s news will be accessible not merely next year but next century and it is relatively easily findable through a search engine.”

In a case involving a celebrity “threesome” appeal judges ruled knowledge of the person was now so widely known that confidentiality had “probably been lost”. Identifying information has appeared on social media and has been published here in Scotland as well as the US, jurisdictions not bound by the injunction.

His lecture also touched on the use of cameras in the courtroom as well as video-link technology, online dispute resolution, data protection rights and government surveillance.

Lord Neuberger’s lecture is available in full from the UKSC website.