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Home > What you need to know about camera cell phones and your right to privacy
September 26, 2005
By: Bob Whitehead
You're trying on clothes, paying for groceries, changing
in your gym locker room -- all public places and all places
where you might see someone with a cell phone. But is it a
cell phone or is it a camera phone? We're so accustomed to
seeing these in public that it's easy not to realize that a
regular phone could be invading your right to privacy.
Many people use camera cell phones for their ease and
convenience -- why carry around two objects when you can
just carry around one? However, there are those who are
intent on using this technology to violate individual
privacy rights by taking voyeuristic photos with their
mobile phones. Bathrooms and similar areas are already
protected from video surveillance, but camera phones
pose a new threat to these personal privacy rights, as it is
very easy to circumvent such rules with these commonplace
devices.
What steps are being taken to protect these individual
rights? Locker rooms and dressing rooms are starting to
forbid mobile phones. In New York, an "unlawful
surveillance" law was created to protect individuals from
having their picture taken unwittingly for entertainment or
sexual purposes.
As a recent
Legal Zoom article points out, though, while laws can be
made to protect individual privacy rights, how do you know
when these rights are being violated? It's up to lawmakers
to require mobile phone cameras to be less discreet, to use
flashes or noises like other cameras. After all, if you
don't notice your privacy being invaded, how will you be
able to report it?
About the Author
Bob Whitehead is a successful freelance writer and
contributor to Video-Surveillance-Guide.com. Your
definitive guide to video surveillance equipment, CCTV
cameras and wireless security systems for home and business.
Also See: [
Smaller home security
cameras raise privacy issues with neighbors ]
[
How do employee
privacy rights figure into video surveillance? ]
[
Invasion of
privacy laws, video surveillance & issues of legality ]
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