Taking external photographs of a private residence and making the photographs available on a publicly accessible Web site does not give rise to a tort action under Pennsylvania law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled. The court concluded that the homeowners' privacy was not invaded because such conduct would not be “highly offensive to a reasonable person” so as to give rise to an intrusion upon seclusion claim. The court similarly concluded that the homeowners had failed to establish a claim for publicity given to private life. The court reversed the lower court dismissal of the homeowners' trespass claim, however, finding that their claim that the vehicle from which the photographs were taken had entered into their private driveway was a trespass claim “pure and simple.”
Boring v. Google, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 1891 (3d Cir. Jan. 28, 2010) (unpublished) Download PDF
