Does the law recognise the 'confidential information' contained in a database?

Big Data: Legal Challenges (Full Report)

An equitable right to enforce a duty of confidence is recognised in all major common law jurisdictions and the pre-conditions are essentially the same 46:

the information has the necessary quality of confidence; the circumstances in which the information is imparted are such that there is an understanding that it is to be treated as confidential, or the recipient ought to have realised that the information was to be treated in such a way; and the party conveying the information must suffer a detriment as a result of the disclosure. A particularly useful aspect of the right to confidentiality is that it will extend to third parties who receive confidential information in breach of a duty of confidence owed by the disclosing party.

There appears to be no doubt in the law that a duty of confidentiality can attach to a database having the necessary quality of confidence. Indeed a classic case of breach of duty of confidentiality occurs when an ex-employee takes with them a customer list intending to use it for the purposes of their new employment. In many cases the information contained in the database will itself not be confidential. It is the selection of the information for inclusion in the database which is confidential (for example, in the case of the customer database, the names and contact...