Balancing human and machine perspectives: what is the ‘public interest’ in the AI era?

By Tom Orrell & Melissa Stock Privacy law has never been a straightforward affair in England. Its development has been piecemeal over the past two centuries.[1] In fact the laws that govern information today are spread across multiple frameworks, including: libel (protecting reputation), data protection (rights over the processing of personal data), breach of confidence […]

The E-Privacy Regulation: An Overview

This is an overview of the e-Privacy Regulation (‘ePR’), which will replace Directive 2002/58/EC (Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications), or ‘e-Privacy Directive’. The e-Privacy Directive protects the confidentiality of electronic communications and applies to publicly available electronic communications services. In the U.K., the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation (“PECR”) implements the e-Privacy Directive. In […]

R (on the application of Ingenious Media Holdings Plc) v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs [2016] UKSC 54

This was an appeal in the Supreme Court concerning the scope of the duty of confidentiality that HMRC owes to taxpayers. Patrick McKenna founded Ingenious Media Holdings Plc (“Ingenious Media”), an investment and advisory group that specialised in the media industry. The group utilised tax relief schemes relevant to the industry; HMRC were investigating these […]

PJS v NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS [2016] UKSC 26

Summary In January 2016, the Court of Appeal discharged an interim injunction that prevented newspapers from publishing identification of celebrity PJS, or the facts or details relating to the sexual activities of PJS with two other people. The Court of Appeal discharged the injunction on the basis that the appearance of the information on the […]

The GDPR: what’s all the fuss?

The General Data Protection Regulation, or ‘GDPR’, has been created to provide stronger protection of personal data than that contained in the EU Directive 95/46/EC. The Directive, dating from 1995, introduced a framework that is now inadequate given the enormous changes in digital information and the way in which we use technology. The GDPR will […]