Privacy laws of the United States

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Privacy laws of the United States deal with several different legal concepts. One is the invasion of privacy, a tort based in common law allowing an aggrieved party to bring a lawsuit against an individual who unlawfully intrudes into their private affairs, discloses their private information, publicizes them in a false light, or appropriates their name for personal gain.^[1]

The essence of the law derives from a right to privacy, defined broadly as "the right to be let alone". It usually excludes personal matters or activities which may reasonably be of public interest, like those of celebrities or participants in newsworthy events. Invasion of the right to privacy can be the basis for a lawsuit for damages against the person or entity violating the right. These include the Fourth Amendment right to be free of unwarranted search or seizure, the First Amendment right to free assembly, and the Fourteenth Amendment due process right, recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States as protecting a general right to privacy within family, marriage, motherhood, procreation, and child rearing.^[2][3]

Attempts to improve consumer privacy protections in the U.S. in the wake of the 2017 Equifax data breach, which affected 145.5 million U.S. consumers, failed to pass in Congress.^[4]