If I say “I think Lumifer likes to ride polar bears in his free time”, then I am speculating about your personal circumstances.
Not quite. The words which are missing here are “imaginary” and “real”.
I have real personal circumstances. If someone were to find out what they really are and start discussing them, I would be justified in claiming invasion of privacy and speculation about my personal circumstances.
However in this example, me riding polar bears is not real personal circumstances. What’s happening is that you *associate* me with some imaginary circumstances. Because they are imaginary they do not affect my actual privacy or my real personal circumstances. They are not MY personal circumstances.
In legal terms, publicly claiming that Lumifer likes to ride polar bears and participate in unmentionable activities with them might be defamation but it is NOT invasion of privacy.
To repeat, you want to prevent or control people talking about you and that doesn’t sound to me like a reasonable request.
Not quite. The words which are missing here are “imaginary” and “real”.
I have real personal circumstances. If someone were to find out what they really are and start discussing them, I would be justified in claiming invasion of privacy and speculation about my personal circumstances.
However in this example, me riding polar bears is not real personal circumstances. What’s happening is that you *associate* me with some imaginary circumstances. Because they are imaginary they do not affect my actual privacy or my real personal circumstances. They are not MY personal circumstances.
In legal terms, publicly claiming that Lumifer likes to ride polar bears and participate in unmentionable activities with them might be defamation but it is NOT invasion of privacy.
To repeat, you want to prevent or control people talking about you and that doesn’t sound to me like a reasonable request.
You are just using different definitions of privacy.
Recommended reading: Daniel Solove, “A Taxonomy of Privacy”.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=667622