Time has shown that in periods of crisis the pressure on privacy and on personality rights in general has always increased. The coronavirus pandemic has not been an exception and several problems have emerged during this crisis. Compulsory confinement at home has led to the need for a new division of home “territories” and devices, such as computers and televisions, with the ensuing compression of space, not only physical but also emotional and mental. The impact of these unique events on people’s privacy has not yet been the object of a thorough study. In this contribution, the authors intend to discuss some of the issues that confinement has given rise to from a privacy perspective, among family members and housemates, co-workers and employers.

PRIVACY IN A CHANGING WORLD

Privacy is not a fossilised concept but a dynamic notion that has been developing over decades in a non-linear way, adjusting to contemporary requirements of a complex global digital world. During the 20th century, it was necessary for the line between public and private, rarely straight and often unclear, to adjust to great milestones, such as two World Wars. What is more, the effect of the development of technology, globalisation and media omnipresence cannot be understated.

In recent decades, the terrorist threat, on the one hand, and the exponential increase in the use of the Internet, on the other hand, with the emergence of social networking, have introduced serious new challenges to the legal framework regarding privacy.

Privacy, as a personality interest, demands multi-level protection at different stages and uses different legal instruments, such as human rights, at the international level. Within the Portuguese legal framework these instruments involve fundamental rights laid down in both constitutional and criminal law. Personality rights, which are designed to protect personality interests in private relations, belong particularly to civil law but also protect individuals in the areas of labour and criminal law. The different layers of protection offered by these legal instruments work in a complementary way, often overlapping in order to protect the various levels of intrusion that affect the interests of the personality.