ABSTRACT
Defamation changes the way society feels about an individual. Invasions of privacy change the way individuals feel about themselves. Today, invasion of privacy suits may be based on personal humiliation, shame, suffering, or emotional distress. Though defamation involves the communication of a falsehood, invasions of privacy may involve the publication of true but embarrassing facts. Other invasions of privacy include appropriation of a person’s likeness for commercial gain, intrusion by cameras or other devices into the privacy of one’s home or office, and the publication of material that places one in a “false light”—that is, appearing to do something that is embarrassing or socially unacceptable. False light is closest to defamation and is sometimes prosecuted as libel.
