Category Archives: Defamation and Privacy
Alexander Hatzikalimnios, ‘Privacy in the age of data breaches – the “social media ban” in Australia’
ABSTRACT Privacy, in the age of rampant availability of online data, forms a crucial component of contemporary societal values. It is undeniable that there is more information available than ever for bad actors to acquire. With the introduction of the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 (‘Minimum Age Amendment’) in December 2025 […]
Amy Gajda, ‘Becoming private after public allegations: a right to be forgotten for #MeToo accusers in the United States’
ABSTRACT In 2018, an otherwise unknown woman alleged that a United States Supreme Court nominee had assaulted her while they were in high school; the claim propelled the woman into headlines and made her a public figure, both culturally and legally. This article argues that such a ‘public figure’ distinction can be undone, that headline-making […]
Russell Opland, ‘Consumer Protection Law in New Zealand: A Means of Redress for Privacy Harms?’
ABSTRACT This paper interrogates the growing dissonance between New Zealand’s digital economy and its frameworks for consumer redress. It identifies a significant regulatory ‘void’ within the Privacy Act 2020, arguing that the Act’s conciliatory enforcement pathway and high remedial ‘harm threshold’ – requiring ‘significant humiliation’ or ‘loss of dignity’ – create an insurmountable barrier for […]
‘“Consent” must be assessed objectively, says Court of Appeal’
The Court of Appeal has handed down an important judgment (RTM v Bonne Terre Ltd & Another [2026] EWCA Civ 488) on the meaning of ‘consent’ in the context of data protection and ePrivacy law, and overturned what had been a problematic prior judgment of the High Court, which had left many businesses, especially those […]
Anfield Tam, ‘The Tort of Malicious Falsehood and Mental Distress Damages’
ABSTRACT It has been 124 years since the apex court in the UK last considered the tort of malicious falsehood. This common law tort has since been modified by statute such that the claimant no longer has to establish pecuniary loss to make out the claim. In George v Cannell, the UK Supreme Court returned […]
Russell Opland, ‘The Right to Be Forgotten in New Zealand Business: An Empirical Survey of Corporate Privacy Practices’
ABSTRACT This paper examines the absence of a Right to Be Forgotten (RTBF) in New Zealand law, combining doctrinal analysis with original empirical research. It opens with a comparative case study of a single New Zealand company – Profile Technology Ltd – whose data practices were investigated by regulators in both New Zealand and Canada, […]
Giulia Priora, ‘Questioning the legality of personal data retention for the purpose of online copyright enforcement in the EU’
ABSTRACT The European Union (EU)’s legal stance on data retention for law enforcement purposes has recently shifted from one of strict exceptionality to a broader acceptance. Landmark rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Bezirkshauptmannschaft Landeck and La Quadrature du Net II mark a turning point, unprecedentedly allowing Member States […]
Emmanuel Kolawole Oke, ‘Building on Campbell to develop a new tort of publicity rights in England for the AI age’
ABSTRACT In Rihanna, the Court of Appeal restated the longstanding view of English courts that there is no ‘image right’ or ‘character right’ in English law. However, in Irvine, which was decided before Campbell, although the claimant was able to successfully rely on passing off to protect his image, Justice Laddie was willing to explore […]
Amy Gajda, ‘Campbell at twenty: Campbell’s sensibilities and information privacy in the United States’
ABSTRACT This article considers the intriguing question of whether a Naomi Campbell-like claim for invasion of privacy could ever be a winnable one in the United States. While the short answer is no, the longer answer is considerably more nuanced. The article explores the way a Hollywood lawyer might bring such a privacy claim despite […]
Ciani and Pagallo, ‘No Peace After Death? The Impact of AI-Driven Memorial Chatbots on Privacy and Data Protection’
ABSTRACT This paper examines the profitable digital afterlife industry (DAI), whose aim is to monetize the digital remains of departed internet users. Among the different services offered by such an industry, attention is drawn to AI and humanoid robots that create convincing digital surrogates of the deceased. A decade ago, Google patented robots that can […]