The protection of Prosser's privacy categories within English tort law

This article considers the extent to which English tort law is now capable of providing a remedy for a violation of those interests which in the USA are protected by what Prosser described as a ‘complex of four’ privacy torts. The article describes how despite the rejection of a tort of privacy by the House of Lords in Wainwright v Home Office, English judges have nevertheless gone on to develop remedies for violations of privacy which bear certain similarities with two of the US privacy torts. The article identifies intrusion upon solitude or seclusion as the major area where protection appears to be currently lacking, and explores solutions for this. The article considers the potential for the tort of misuse of private information to be developed into a more general privacy tort.