Privacy law: kiss, don’t tell!

• Sets out case law on publication and the prevention of publication.

Facts within the public domain?

In Stephens v Avery [1988] Ch 449, [1988] 2 All ER 477 the claimant communicated information to the defendant relating to her sexual conduct with another woman. Subsequent details of the relationship appeared in a newspaper article. Sir Nicholas Browne-Wilkinson VC held that equity would intervene to protect confidential information on the basis it was unconscionable for the recipient to reveal that information and that was so whether it had been given expressly in confidence or by implication where the relationship between the parties imposed a duty of confidence. In the words of the Vice-Chancellor, at [454]: ‘To most people the details of their sexual lives are high on their list of those matters which they regard as confidential. If in fact information is secret, then in my judgment it is capable of being kept secret by the imposition