The Court of Appeal has today refused an appeal by Associated News against the decision of Mr Justice (now Lord Justice) Warby to grant the Duchess of Sussex summary judgment in respect of her claim for breach of privacy rights and breach of copyright against Associated. This is an important judgment on the interplay between privacy and free speech rights, not to mention the application of copyright law, and so bears some detailed consideration. Continue reading
Data in the sporting arena – LawInSport Conference next week
In case of interest, LawInSport’s Annual Conference is running a panel session next Tuesday morning on the subject of the use and commercialisation of player data in the sports arena (I am speaking alongside Hugh Tomlinson QC and Jorge Oliveira, Head of Data Protection at FIFA). The entire two-day conference is now being run remotely. You can purchase tickets here.
Anya Proops QC
Substance Abuse: Section 166 Applications and the End of the Road
One of the conspicuous failures of the DPA 2018 has been the right to apply to the Tribunal under s166 for an order that the ICO progress a complaint made to it. Data subjects assume that this allows them to ask the Tribunal to overturn how the ICO has resolved their complaint. They perhaps not unreasonably assume the process would be of limited value if it were limited to the sort of procedural steps set out in s166(1), and they are instead left having to sue the controller under ss167-169. Some very well-regarded commentators have expressed the view that s166 ought to be interpreted more generously. They may think all of those things. But they would think wrong. Continue reading
Personal Data and Identifiability
It is a common problem encountered by data controllers that a dataset is in principle anonymous, but where the numbers within that dataset are sufficiently small, the individual data subject(s) to which they relate may be identifiable, particularly when taken with other publicly available information. Datasets released often refuse to provide the specific number where it is below five for that reason. In NHS Business Authority v Information Commissioner & Spivack [2021] UKUT 192 (AAC), the Upper Tribunal reviewed and revisited that issue. Continue reading
It’s not all about the Supreme Court: don’t forget the little people
There has been much talk about the recent Supreme Court decision in Lloyd v Google (see Rupert’s excellent summary here). While great minds have been focusing on the learning from their Lordships, there have also been some recent data protection nuggets from lower down the chain that are worthy of some consideration.
Anya Proops QC wins Media, Defamation, Privacy and Data Protection Silk of the Year at the Chambers Bar Awards 2021
We are thrilled to announce that Anya Proops QC was a winner at the Chambers Bar Awards held on the 18th of November. The awards are based on Chambers’ research for the 2022 edition of Chambers Bar and reflect notable achievements over the past 12 months including outstanding work, impressive strategic growth and excellence in client service. We would particularly like to thank all of our clients for their continued loyalty and support and we are delighted to share these awards with you.