In a recent case, the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Canada recognized the privacy torts that are widely-recognized in the United States. Many foreign common law jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and other countries, have steadfastly refused to recognize the privacy torts spawned by the 1890 law review article by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, The Right to Privacy, 4 Harv. L. Rev. 193 (1890). These torts – intrusion upon seclusion, public disclosure of private facts, false light, and appropriation of name or likeness – are known collectively as “invasion of privacy.” In the case of Jones v. Tsige, 2012 ONCA 42 (Jan. 18, 2012), the Court of Appeal for Ontario finally recognized the US privacy tort of intrusion upon seclusion – intentionally intruding upon a person’s seclusion or solitude, or into his private affairs.
