MR JUSTICE WARBY
Approved Judgment
NT1 & NT2 v Google LLC
performance of a task carried out in the public
interest or in the exercise of official authority
vested in the controller;
(c)
for reasons of public interest in the area of public
health in accordance with points (h) and (i) of
Article 9(2) as well as Article 9(3);
(d)
for archiving purposes in the public interest,
scientific or historical research purposes or
statistical purposes in accordance with Article
89(1) in so far as the right referred to in
paragraph 1 is likely to render impossible or
seriously impair the achievement of the
objectives of that processing; or
(e)
for the establishment, exercise or defence of
legal claims.”
Misuse of private information
42.
The second cause of action relied on in these cases is misuse of private information.
As appears from, among other cases, Campbell, McKennitt v Ash [2006] EWCA Civ
1714 [2008] QB 73 [11] and Vidal-Hall, this is a tort which emerged from the
equitable wrong of breach of confidence under the influence of the HRA, and has two
essential ingredients: (1) the claimant must enjoy a reasonable expectation of privacy
in respect of the information in question; if that is established, the second question
arises (2) in all the circumstances, must the Article 8 rights of the individual yield to
the right of freedom of expression conferred on the publisher by article 10? The latter
inquiry is commonly referred to as the balancing exercise. It falls to be undertaken in
the way set out by Lord Steyn in Re S at [17]:
“First, neither article has as such precedence over the other.
Secondly, where the values under the two articles are in
conflict, an intense focus on the comparative importance of the
specific rights being claimed in the individual case is necessary.
Thirdly, the justifications for interfering with or restricting each
right must be taken into account. Finally, the proportionality
test must be applied to each. For convenience I will call this the
ultimate balancing test.”
43.
The authorities provide numerous illustrations of this balancing process, which is of
course highly fact-sensitive. The relationship between the laws of misuse of private
information and data protection has been discussed on occasion. They are often
considered to lead to the same conclusion, for much the same reasons: see, for
instance, the Campbell v MGN Ltd litigation, Murray v Express Newspapers plc
[2007] EWHC 1908 (Ch) [2008] EMLR 22; but this is not always so: see Mosley v
Google Inc [2015] EWHC 59 (QB) [2015] EMLR 11 [8]-[9] (Mitting J). In this case,
it is agreed that both deserve consideration.