Invasion of Privacy The right of privacy is a common-law (court-
made) cause of action that is a fairly new legal development.
The U.S. Constitution contains no direct references to the right
of privacy. There are few statutes that affect privacy and most
invasion of privacy lawsuits that publishers may face are of the
common-law type. An action for invasion of privacy is actually
comprised of four distinct torts (legal wrongs). These are:
intrusion upon seclusion; appropriation of name or likeness;
publicity given to private life; and publicity placing the
person in a false light. Each separate cause of action is
addressed below. Note: to sue successfully for invasion of
privacy, a plaintiff only has to prove one of the four torts,
not all of the four torts. The right of privacy competes with
the freedom of the press as well as the interest of the public
in the free dissemination of news and information, and these
permanent public interests must be considered when placing the
necessary limitations upon the ri