If you are outside then you do not have a reasonable expectation that your picture will not be taken. This is regardless if you are a "public" person (
) or not.
Newsweek took information that was available publicly, published a group of such information and made a conclusion (one that was likely faulty). This is also not illegal as anyone could find this information if they wanted to.
If Newsweek thinks that something is newsworthy then they have the right to publish it. They have an incentive to make an accurate conclusion regarding facts as if they do not then people will not take them seriously and will be unable to fill their advertisement spots
I don't want to pose as an expert, which I'm not and I know nothing about US laws in this matter.
But based on laws in some of the European countries you cannot just publish someone's image and details, unless it's a 'public person' (politician, actor etc).
It's not about taking a pictures or publically available information, but about publishing it.
To use extreme example, would it be legal if some reporter took a picture of you and published it (together with your details) labelling you as 'possible paedophile' - conclusion based only on fact that he saw you walking near primary school? The common sense dictates it wouldn't and I'm sure you could easily sue them.
So think it's all down to whether Newsweek had evidence 'strong enough' to make such assumption. And that's for the court to decide.
Dude, read all of what you said in reverse.
What you essentially said is that everyone should be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law (and perhaps after all appeals have expired as well).
Well, if you were to wait for that to report anything shady, suspicious, or the like, then you would only be reporting old news.
You don't get a job working at Newsweek just because you worked on the Yearbook committee in high school, all stories go up the ladder before going to print.
Any reasonable person seeing the evidence from the side of the reporter would be reasonably expected to draw the same preliminary conclusions -- "that might be him, I want to interview him". After you, the reporter, get his side of the story you might be more or less convinced of the facts of the matter.
Nevertheless, based on your belief that 'famous' people are fair game for the media, how do you go about proving that the dude identified was not in fact the famous person they believed him to be?
How many times have people said they are or are not someone just to distract from the truth?