§ 1123.Uniform Civil Remedies For Unauthorized Disclosure of Intimate Images Act - Cause of Action - Consent - Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

This is where the new Act's cause of action lives. Subsection A defines “harm” to include physical harm, economic harm, and emotional distress, and defines “private” to cover an image created or obtained where the depicted individual had a reasonable expectation of privacy, or made accessible through theft, bribery, extortion, fraud, false pretenses, voyeurism, or exceeding authorized access to an account, device, or similar resource. Subsection B then gives an identifiable depicted individual who suffers harm a claim against a person who intentionally discloses or threatens to disclose an intimate image that was private and disclosed without the individual's consent, so long as that person knew the content was of the kind the Act prohibits.

Two rules protect that claim from being undercut on privacy or consent grounds. Consenting to the image's creation, or having consented to an earlier disclosure of it, doesn't by itself prove the depicted individual consented to the disclosure now being sued over, or that the individual lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy. And an individual who didn't consent to the sexual conduct or exposure shown keeps a reasonable expectation of privacy even if the image was taken somewhere public.