Section 8 of the Human Rights Act entitles people to their privacy, and is a majority of what you need to know about private laws. Section 10 of the Human Rights Act is about the freedom of expression of personal opinions which, when it was originally conceived, was thought it might balance out Section 8. But when we talk about freedom of expression, this is obviously in reference to the population and not the presses.
We looked into what means a picture can lawfully be printed under without going against any Confidentiality laws. Public events count, but NOT when it involves such things like any kind of focus on individuals who do have privacy, and when there has been consent for the picture. On this note there are two different kinds of consent:
è Explicit Consent, in which there is normally some kind of signed release form for the pictures, sometimes in exchange for money.
è Implied Consent, in which a person might know they are getting photographed and are obviously ok with it, and will probably even make a pose for it. This obviously shows that they know they’re being photographed and don’t mind that it is probably likely to be printed somewhere.
This led us on to talk fully about Confidentiality and Secrets, and how they appear under the Official Secrets Act. “Official” Secrets include such things as:
· Government secrets or any kinds of crimes
· Anyone can be prosecuted for revealing state owned secrets without permission.
· Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act is serious about the release of official secrets that could be used to help “enemies”. This includes, without permission, taking any kinds of photos of protected places such as Nuclear Power Stations or any other kind of place that is protected under the 1911 official protection act.
· Section 2 focuses on disclosing secrets about businesses of the state like the Post Office or the Army, and these can be counted as state secrets.
There is also “Private” Secrets, which consist of:· Trade secrets and business secrets, which are there to protect from espionage.
· We have a right to confidentiality from the legal age of 16, which means we have a right to tell someone something that we do not want told to other people, like Doctors or Councillors.
· Family Secrets, which means privacy amongst relatives. This includes interviewing someone’s parents to get information about them without permission, however this does not work both ways as children are allowed to reveal information about their parents, and siblings can do this similarly to each other within certain parameters.
Breach of Confidentiality occurs if:
è A person passes on information which has the necessary quality of confidence (i.e. how important or revealing the information is).
è AND that information was provided under circumstances imposing an obligation (i.e. it was told in trust)
è AND there was no permission to pass on that information
è AND the revealing of this information and breach of confidentiality causes actual damage or detriment.
There are now clauses that are put in place in workers contracts that will protect Trade Secrets from being revealed. These are commonly referred to as Gag Clauses, and are normally put in place to stop workers from talking about information that is contained in contracts of employment, or revealing secrets important to that companies trade.
One incident of breach of confidentiality was the case surrounding Princess Caroline of Monaco who was photographed whilst shopping and claimed that it was a breach of privacy and took the photographer to court. This resulted in an injunction against any unapproved pictures of her unless it was during a “Clear Public Duty” she has to do, such as handing over the European Cup. So this just goes to show how breaches of privacy and confidentiality can be so easily encountered unless research and permission into the subject has been taken care of!
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