2 Privacy & Family Members

Section 2.1 Principles

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A footballer accepts public scrutiny of their professional life. They do not thereby hand over their medical history, their marriage, or their children. Their parents, partners and siblings have accepted nothing at all.

Lifebogger writes biography, which means we routinely handle exactly the material privacy law protects: family relationships, origins, upbringing, health and money. This section exists because that is where the real risk sits, and because “it was already online” has never been a defence.

Our default is restraint. Where a detail adds nothing to a reader’s understanding of why the subject matters, it does not go in.

Section 2.2 The Public Interest Test

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Private information may only be published where there is a genuine public interest that outweighs the intrusion. Public interest is not the same as public curiosity.

1. 2.2.1 Before publishing private information, the writer must be able to answer in one sentence: what public interest does this serve? “Readers want to know” is not an answer.
2. 2.2.2 Recognised public interests include exposing crime or serious wrongdoing, correcting a materially misleading claim the subject has themselves made publicly, and matters of genuine public health or safety.
3. 2.2.3 The intrusion must be proportionate. Where a point can be made without naming a private individual, we do not name them.
4. 2.2.4 The fact that information is already circulating elsewhere does not create a public interest, and does not reduce our responsibility for republishing it.

Section 2.3 Partners, Parents & Siblings

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1. 2.3.1 Family members are treated as private individuals unless they hold public office, run a public business, or have themselves sought a public profile.
2. 2.3.2 A partner may be named only where the subject or the partner has publicly confirmed the relationship. Photographs together at a public event are not confirmation.
3. 2.3.3 We do not report on the employment, income, debts, immigration status or criminal record of a family member unless it is directly and demonstrably relevant to the subject’s own public role.
4. 2.3.4 Separation, divorce, infidelity and family estrangement are reported only from an official confirmation or the subject’s own public statement — never from a rumour, and never from a third party’s social media post.
5. 2.3.5 Where a family member asks not to be named, we comply unless there is a clear public interest recorded under 2.2.1.

Section 2.4 Children & Minors

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Children have a stronger expectation of privacy than adults, and it does not weaken because their parent is famous. The rules below are absolute and are not subject to a public interest override at writer level.

1. 2.4.1 We never publish a photograph in which a subject’s minor child is identifiable, in any context, regardless of where the image came from or who posted it.
2. 2.4.2 A minor child’s name may be published only where the parent has themselves named the child publicly, and even then only where it is relevant. Date of birth is reported as a year at most.
3. 2.4.3 We never publish a child’s school, nursery, address, daily routine, or any detail that could assist someone in locating them.
4. 2.4.4 We do not report on a child’s health, disability, behaviour or schooling performance.
5. 2.4.5 Where a subject was a minor at the time of an event, we consider whether reporting it now still serves a purpose, particularly for offences, family breakdown or care history.

Section 2.5 Health, Sexuality & Religious Belief

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1. 2.5.1 Medical information — including injury detail beyond what a club has officially released, mental health, fertility and pregnancy — is published only with the subject’s own public disclosure.
2. 2.5.2 We do not speculate about, imply, or “reveal” a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Only a subject’s own public statement may be reported.
3. 2.5.3 Religious belief and practice are reported factually and only where the subject has spoken about it publicly. We do not characterise the sincerity or orthodoxy of anyone’s faith.
4. 2.5.4 Reporting a death requires official or family confirmation. We do not publish on the basis of social media tributes alone.

Section 2.6 Images, Social Media & Location

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1. 2.6.1 A public social media account is not a licence. We may report what a public figure has said publicly; we do not lift their photographs without permission or a licence.
2. 2.6.2 Content from a private or restricted account is never used, and neither is content obtained by a third party from one.
3. 2.6.3 We do not publish home addresses, street views of private residences, neighbourhood names at street level, or anything that identifies where a person lives.
4. 2.6.4 Images taken in genuinely private settings — homes, hospitals, places of worship, funerals — are not used without explicit consent.
5. 2.6.5 Where a subject requests removal of a personal photograph and there is no strong public interest in keeping it, we remove it.

Section 2.7 Mandatory Referrals

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