ABSTRACT
Black's Law Dictionary defines the right of privacy as "the right to personal autonomy" and "the right of a person and the person's property to be free from unwarranted public scrutiny or exposure". Appropriation is by far the oldest form of invasion of privacy recognized at common law, but it is the one tort of the four that poses minimal problems for the mass media. The tort of intrusion bears many similarities to the tort of trespass, which at common law is basically unlawful interference with an individual's personal possessions or real property. The first element, publication, is generally easy for a plaintiff to demonstrate and is usually not in dispute. Unlike libel, which requires that the defamatory information be communicated merely to a third party, public disclosure of private facts must be fairly widespread because this is a tort of publicity, not simply communication.
