Tort law: Dignitary torts - Invasion of privacy - Intrusion on Seclusion - False light

The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 150 national constitutions mention the right to privacy.

In the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 12, the United Nations states:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Intrusion on Seclusion

Intrusion on seclusion is one of the four privacy torts created under U.S. common law. Intrusion on seclusion is commonly thought to be the bread-and-butter claim for an "invasion of privacy."

The other three privacy claims under U.S. tort law are:

• public disclosure of private facts,

• false light, and

• appropriation of someone's name or likeness.

Elements.

The elements of an intrusion on seclusion claim in tort law are:

• intentionally

• intruding

• on the solitude or seclusion of another person, or on their private affairs

• in a manner that would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.

In US law, false light is a tort concerning privacy that is similar to the tort of defamation. The privacy laws in the United States include a non-public person's right to protection from publicity which puts the person in a false light to the public. That right is balanced against the First Amendment right of free speech.

False light differs from defamation primarily in being intended "to protect the plaintiff's mental or emotional well-being", rather than to protect a plaintiff's reputation as is the case with the tort of defamation and in being about the impression created rather than being about veracity. If a publication of information is false, then a tort of defamation might have occurred. If that communication is not technically false but is still misleading, then a tort of false light might have occurred.

False light privacy claims often arise under the same facts as defamation cases, and therefore not all states recognize false light actions. There is a subtle difference in the way courts view the legal theories—false light cases are about damage to a person's personal feelings or dignity, whereas defamation is about damage to a person's reputation.

The specific elements of the tort of false light vary considerably, even among those jurisdictions which do recognize this Tort. Generally, these elements consist of the following:

1. A publication by the defendant about the plaintiff;

2. made with actual malice (very similar to that type required by New York Times v Sullivan in "Defamation" cases);

3. which places the Plaintiff in a false light; AND

4. that would be highly offensive (i.e., embarrassing to reasonable persons).