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Camera phone pictures can lead to someone else's fun at your expense

September 27, 2005
By:  Bob Whitehead

With new technologies, it is only a matter of time before their use is turned into something less savory. For example, there are many useful purposes for the Internet -- and many voyeuristic ones as well. Camera phone pictures have fallen into this category. While most choose to use these phones for candid shots, others have chosen to use them for their own entertainment.

Because camera phone photos can be taken quietly and discreetly, you can capture someone's image without them ever knowing or granting permission -- something done far less easily with other cameras. This fact means that capturing someone in states of undress or tilting the camera to take pictures up a female's skirt is not only possible, but it happens.

A recent Legal Zoom article cites the existence of "moblogs" or mobile blogs as one problem arising from the use of cellular phone pictures. People take voyeuristic photos, then post them on websites for others to view. The subject of the photo seldom realizes this is happening.

The Video Voyeurism Prevention Act is one attempt to help protect people from unwillingly becoming a part of these photos. A News.com article outlines the purposes of this act that prohibits the taking of secret camera phone images in areas with a reasonable expectation of privacy, like locker and changing rooms.

Meanwhile, some gyms with high-risk areas like locker rooms are resorting to banning mobile phones and cameras altogether. Laws will help protect you, but it is difficult to invoke them when you don't know your picture is being taken. Thus, more drastic measures must be taken to lower the risk of someone being able to take voyeuristic mobile phone pictures.

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:  [ About camera cell phones and your right to privacy ]
[ Smaller home security cameras raise privacy issues with neighbors ]
[ How do employee privacy rights figure into video surveillance? ]

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