Companies May Be Liable for Accessing Recycled Cellphones - Steele v. RadioShack

It always impresses me that when personal data is accessed the guilty party always tries to prove it was in the public interest. If you read your sisyter's diary, doesn't matter what you found, it was wrong in itself - malum in se. The issue at law here is can defendant claim common law intrusion into seclusion? Can the parties prove the elements necessary for judgement in their favor? The basic facts are that Steele bought a new phone at RadioShack, after which a RadioShack employee transferred the data from Steele’s old phone to his new one. Steele also left his old phone at RadioShack for recycling. After Steele left, RadioShack accessed his old phone and viewed personal information, including photographs which Steele took at his worksite. RadioShack forwarded these photos to Steele’s employer. As a result, Steele was fired. [Read more]