Man sues SKM over alleged privacy breach, emotional distress

A man is suing the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) over alleged breach of privacy and emotional distress, with the first day of the civil trial taking place on Aug 5.

Mr Martin Piper’s statement of claim said he e-mailed SKM on or around Aug 27, 2022, complaining about Ms Carol Loi Pui Wan, the co-founder of SGFamilies, a ground-up movement of the SKM.

It states: “To the claimant’s knowledge, Carol was engaging in discriminatory conduct by operating a chat group on Telegram messenger which disseminated transphobic and anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) material.

“The claimant also knew Carol to be affiliated with the defendant, and therefore thought it fit to lodge a complaint to the defendant about (her conduct).”

On Sept 1, 2022, SKM’s head of strategic marketing and communications Karun S’Baram responded to Mr Piper’s e-mail.

In it, according to Mr Piper’s statement of claims, Mr Karun “attempted to alleviate the claimant’s concerns by stating that Carol had explained that she was neither the owner nor founder of the Telegram chat and that her involvement in the Telegram chat was limited to her personal capacity as a concerned citizen”.

On Sept 4, 2022, Mr Piper responded to Mr Karun’s e-mail to provide further information supplementing the complaint.

According to the claimant, Mr Karun responded to that e-mail on Sept 7, 2022 and this time round, copied Ms Loi in it. By doing so, Ms Loi could see the entire e-mail thread which contained his personal data, Mr Piper claimed.

He is now accusing SKM of breaching the obligations owed to him under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), stating in his documents that SKM did not obtain his consent for the use or disclosure of his personal data.

On or around Sept 5, 2022, Ms Loi filed an action against Mr Piper under the Protection from Harassment Act (Poha), alleging that he had harassed her.

Mr Piper’s court documents stated: “After Carol filed the Poha claim... she went on to publish a series of screenshots and photos accompanied by lengthy comments, in a Facebook album that documented the process of her filing (it)”.

According to the documents, the album led to Mr Piper being identified as the respondent of the Poha claim which eventually resulted in him receiving death threats from unidentified parties.

The documents also stated that as a result of the Poha claim, Mr Piper incurred considerable undisclosed expenses in responding to and defending against it, which ultimately turned out to be frivolous, as Ms Loi eventually withdrew it on May 24, 2023.

Mr Piper also claimed that he suffered emotional distress after receiving the unwarranted death threats.

Among other things, he is claiming against SKM for costs and damages to be assessed. Court documents did not disclose details about the monetary amounts. Mr Piper is represented by lawyers Fong Wei Li and Tiffanie Lim from Forward Legal.

SKM, which is represented by Senior Counsel Gregory Vijayendran and lawyer Meher Malhotra from Rajah & Tann, Singapore, stated in its court documents that the defendant denies that the claimant is entitled to any and all reliefs from the defendant.

It also stated that the case is linked to the Singapore Families Watch Group Telegram channel and that Ms Loi had explained to SKM that the channel is not associated with the SGFamilies ground-up movement.

The defence added: “The ground-up movement does not have a Telegram channel... Carol had clarified that she is not a founder or owner of the Telegram channel and that her involvement in the Telegram channel is as a concerned citizen in her personal capacity, with other concerned citizens.

“She also clarified that at no time did she claim to represent SGFamilies and/or the (SKM) whenever she shared her personal views about any matter that concerns her on the Telegram channel.”

According to the defence, to facilitate SKM’s investigation, the charity informed Ms Loi that it would connect her to Mr Piper as it was not in a position to speak on her behalf. The defence also said that it would be appropriate for Ms Loi to respond to the allegations directly to him.

SKM’s court documents stated: “Subsequently, on Sept 7, 2022, Karun e-mailed Carol directly, in a separate e-mail, copying the claimant. The claimant was copied so that Carol could respond and address the claimant’s concerns.”

They also stated that while SKM did not expressively seek Mr Piper’s consent regarding the use or disclosure of his personal data, he had voluntarily provided them to the charity by sending the e-mail to it with his own e-mail account for the investigation into Ms Loi and the SGFamilies Watch Group Telegram channel.

The defence added: “Given that the claimant had voluntarily provided his personal data for the defendant’s investigation purposes, and for the parties to conciliate and resolve the conflict, implied consent can be reasonably inferred from the claimant’s conduct and circumstances.”

The defence also said that Mr Piper did not advise SKM to have his name anonymised or request for the correspondence to be confidential.

The trial continues.