Privacy and Misuse of Private Information - Essay Example

More specifically, the essay will address whether Clive can prevent publication of information regarding him, based on the law on breach of confidence and protection of personal information. Privacy and misuse of Private Information According to Crone et al (2002, p 93), the enactment of the law on breach of confidence and protection of personal information resulted from the need to protect personal secrets. In the recent years, people have used the law to prevent the publication of confidential information, especially in the mass media.

In Clive’s case, the Daily Scandal wants to publish information about him. An action for breach of confidence can be the most appropriate to prevent against publication of personal information. Clive can easily obtain an injunction restraining the publication of information regarding cheating on his wife and attending the notorious club. He should take legal action, in which the court will apply an action called ‘blanket ban’ that prevents the magazine from publishing the photos. Under the law of breach of confidence, the Clive can prove several facts to prevent the daily scandal from publishing the information.

One of these facts can be showing that the information contains adequate quality of confidence. The daily scandal has threatened to publish secret information about Clive, without his authority. . This gives Clive the opportunity to take an action against them on the basis of ‘imputed confidential relationship.’ The court will grant the action of injunction since the differences between Clive and wife have not featured in the public domain (Aplin 2007, p 145). Tanya (2007, p 334) asserts that a person has the right to prevent the publication of this information since it does not affect the public in any way.

Under this law, the media should not publish information about a person if the information does not touch on the public. Matters regarding marital unfaithfulness can be considered to be private. As such, they should not be made public; the information only refers to Clive and his wife. The media do not have an obligation to make public Clive’s personal information. Aplin observes that the law states that secrecy should not be exposed; instead, Clive and wife should be allowed to settle their differences using the due court process.

Publicizing the wrongs of Clive will only worsen the relationship with his wife. As such, he can be in a position to deter the daily scandal from publicizing his photos and other information about him (Aplin 2007, p 150). He has the right to prevent the newspaper from publishing information regarding him since the information cannot be considered to be of public interest. Therefore, the ‘daily scandal’ cannot defend itself on grounds of ‘iniquity.’ The court does not intervene in the publication of public information concerning an iniquity (Stanley, 2009).

In this case, the information concerning Clive attending the club and cheating on his wife cannot be regarded to be of public interest. Based on this, the daily scandal does not have an obligation to expose Clive’s conduct. Thus, they should not publicize the