Tortious Intrusions upon Solitude and Seclusion - A Report from New Zealand

Abstract

A person’s interest in privacy may be said to be invaded where, without that person’s consent, others see or hear or read about what he or she does or says, or what others say or do comes unwillingly to his or her attention. So understood, any right to privacy amounts to no more than the right to be left alone: yet no-one can live so as to be free from all unwanted intrusions by or contact with others. Indeed, one person’s interest in solitude or seclusion has to be set against another’s interest in being free to speak, to look or to act as he or she wishes. At the very least, then, laying down principles of tort liability which seek to distinguish between permissible and impermissible intrusions is not at all a straightforward exercise, and must require careful evaluation and discrimination.