Privacy: Rights, Remedies and Reform

Abstract

For one week in February, media fixated on the office “sex romp” a Christchurch couple unwittingly performed before a crowd of pub patrons, which was filmed and uploaded to YouTube without their knowledge. This article summarises the criminal and civil law protections currently available to persons in the position of the Christchurch couple. It also discusses two proposed reforms of privacy law — a Surveillance Devices Bill and the Harmful Digital Communications Bill — which deserve serious legislative consideration.

Keywords: privacy, seclusion, surveillance, video, visual, voyeur, revenge porn, cyberbullying