Introduction to Invasion of Privacy
The right of privacy is a relatively new concept in American jurisprudence. In fact, it took until the mid 1960s for the Supreme Court, in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, to establish a constitutional right of privacy. That being the case, none of the four categories of tortious invasion of privacy have any basis in common law.
The four categories of tortious invasion of privacy are:
- Intrusion upon seclusion
- “Public disclosure of private facts”
- “Appropriation of plaintiff’s name or likeness for commercial purposes”, and
- “Publication putting plaintiff in a false light”