GDPR will become active on 25th May 2018 and affords individuals various rights against organisations with respect to their data, which is long overdue. The last legislation that covered such items in the EU, was 20 years ago and technology, let alone society has changed a lot in that time.
Then we get to the rights of celebrities, I’m not going to delve in to whether someone is or is not a celebrity, lets assume all such named as celebrities are, at least for this purpose.
Celebrities know that they will be a focus for the public, and by extension various media who are either generally addressing news, or are looking for the celebrity exclusive of who has broken up with whom or what the latest fashions will be.
Equally some celebrities guard their and their families privacy and we rarely see or hear of them because of the care they take.
So the issue of when the BBC somehow gained knowledge of a proposed raid on Cliff Richard, Cliff is rightly upset about that and how the BBC covered it.
My personal view is that they should not have been tipped off, in preference to any other news organisation, but that when in the know of the details, they should and could carry out an investigation or follow up, within current legal boundaries, as it is in the public interest. That is, both the interest we have in celebrity, but equally about a possible law breaker, especially given the allegations that were being levelled at him.
As the article says, it could have wide ranging implications, and I think we should all follow it because of its links to our own personal privacy as much as that of celebrities.
Cliff Richard case ‘likely to have massive implications’
