A couple of recent Upper Tribunal cases have been handed down on the section 35(1) FOIA exemption for the formulation or development of government policy and for Ministerial communications. Both concern documents produced at the highest levels of Government. Both nudge the jurisprudence on a little bit, and both are worth being aware of for those concerned. Continue reading
It’s My Party and I’ll Cry/Sue for Accreditation if I Want To
How does data protection law feed into, and support, challenges to police action in the form of refusing press accreditation for a political party conference? The Divisional Court considered this in R (Segalov) v Chief Constable of Sussex Police & Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police [2018] EWHC 3187 (Admin). Continue reading
Death and the DPA
Death may be the great leveller, but does it also bring to an end an appeal brought under section 28(4) of the Data Protection Act 1998 against a national security certificate issued by the Secretary of State? The answer of the Upper Tribunal in Campbell v Secretary of State for Northern Ireland [2018] UKUT 372 (AAC) was: Yes. Continue reading
Are you thinking what I’m linking? Liability for hyperlinks
Many users of the internet know all too well the hidden dangers of hyperlinks. Now the European Court of Human Rights has considered the extent to which those posting links are responsible for the third party content being linked to, in Magyar Jeti Zrt v Hungary (Case no. 11257/16).
In 2013, a Hungarian politician drew a link between racist assaults by football fans and Jobbik, a right-wing Hungarian political party. A recording of his remarks was uploaded to YouTube. When reporting the story, 444.hu – a news website operated by the applicant company – included a hyperlink to the recording, without repeating the defamatory content in the body of their article. Continue reading
Brexit and Data Protection: Update
Panopticon has generally avoided venturing too far into Brexit-related updates: there has invariably been very little by way of actual facts to comment on (not that that has stopped people). But 14 November 2018 does mark something of a landmark, even if by the time you read this it may well all have collapsed like a particularly badly made soufflé. By the time you watch the repeat on Dave it may look like a legal history article. Here goes nothing… Continue reading
Vicarious liability for data breaches: Court of Appeal dismisses Morrisons’ challenge
Large-scale civil litigation is one of the developing contours of data protection law. Last week’s judgment in Lloyd v Google – a novel representative action based on allegedly unlawful processing activities – is one illustration. When it comes to group litigation on the back of a data breach, our best illustration thus far is the groundbreaking group action against Morrisons. Continue reading