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Ask HN: Will we be forced to pass laws against filming anyone in public?

by dfps on 12/2/23, 4:00 PM with 4 comments

Or what outcome do you see (for various countries)?

Currently, it's already considered very rude and an invasion of privacy/peace to be filming in a restaurant or public space and capturing neighboring customers or pedestrians, and even more extreme when it comes to the massive number of people trying to become streamers/YouTubers and who actually want to get as many of the other people in their video as possible.

But we are quickly approaching a further era, where people can disguise their cameras as glasses and front-facing lapels. And where technology will soon allow people to go around using AI to see everyone naked, and hooligans can easily create an immediate deepFake nude of your girlfriend or family and show you while you're riding the train.

Currently, there is no legal response to any of this (except perhaps mischief) in most jurisdictions. You aren't allowed to take their phone away, smash it, or punch them, and you there's no crime to charge them with. You can yell, but they can just film you yelling and laugh because you can't do anything to them.

What do you see as the outcome of this as it becomes even more pronounced and actual news stories of these things inevitably appear?

Will we pass laws banning all public use of cameras (except you are allowed to film even in public law enforcement, public figures, and anyone during a newsworthy event/crime)?

  • by h2odragon on 12/2/23, 4:15 PM

    Laws banning cameras will of course only cover some cameras and then you get all sorts of Orwellian visions.

    See David Brin's "Earth" for some earlier thinking about the impact of public surveillance society.

    I think the genie is out of the bottle, and far better that everyone who cares to can record what they see. Only the true gems of hilarious stupidity will make it to life changing levels of fame, and perhaps those featured in such clips can learn by and maybe profit from the experience.

    the everyday stupid things we all do have already lost embarrassment value by virtue of being so widely published. Who cares if you catch someone picking their nose in an over the shoulder video now? You can take you shaky phone video of a carjacking to the police, but they may not even want to keep a copy: its unlikely to be of actual use to them.

  • by akerl_ on 12/2/23, 4:37 PM

    There are plenty of things that are rude but not illegal. Why would this be something we need a law for?

  • by vunderba on 12/3/23, 1:32 AM

    Banning visual/audio recording in public spaces takes away all the power of private citizens and firmly hands it over to government agencies/surveillance. A terrible precedent to set.

  • by rolph on 12/2/23, 4:40 PM

    there are already legal frameworks, laws etc, regarding harrasment, public disturbance, and indecencies, in my area.

    This [ask] describes all these behaviours