Collingwood, Lisa Hannah (2013) Privacy protection under the English legal system : is it adequate given the challenges raised by online communicating between individuals? (PhD thesis), Kingston University, .
Abstract
This thesis examines whether the approach to privacy protection under the English legal system is adequate given the distinct challenges raised by online communicating between individuals. In doing this, it aims to fulfil three objectives. Firstly, to show that privacy is, regardless of forum, deserving of appropriate legal protection; secondly, that the existing substantive and procedural basis of protection in England and Wales is flawed, since the altered landscape of privacy engendered by the widespread use of new communications media has been insufficiently assimilated into judicial understandings of privacy; and, thirdly, to analyse whether a revised legal structure would better regulate this area of law. The protection of privacy is an emotive topic, not least because the very nature of privacy itself is open to debate. This thesis plays a vital part in untangling what is, without doubt, a complex area of what may be described as the evolving law of privacy. By adopting its contemporary focus, the thesis is able to offer evaluation and critique of the existing law, highlighting where the English legal system is open to challenge and suggesting how an understanding of the metamorphosed notions of privacy engendered by new communications media might lead to its improved protection at law. Given both the importance of privacy protection and the growing prominence of social media platforms, this represents a crucial and timely research test which, it is hoped, will add to an understanding of these contemporary issues and their consequences. Accordingly, the overall contribution made to knowledge by this study is that, by exploring privacy protection against a backdrop of online communications media, it addresses a gap in the available literature. Within this thesis, the author develops a unique framework with which to better comprehend the increasingly novel ways in which privacy may be violated in a technological age and application of this model allows for the constituent parts of privacy violation to be conceptually broken down against the reality of online communications. This, in turn, allows the author to advance various inventive proposals for how privacy might be better safeguarded in the future.
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