NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] The Coming War Against Personal Photography and Video
The Coming War Against Personal Photography and Video
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001022.html
Are you ready for the imagery war -- the war against personal
photography and capturing of video? You'd better be.
The title of this piece actually isn't entirely accurate. In some
ways, this war isn't just coming, it's already begun. Forces are
lining up on both sides, under the radar for most of us so far, but
preparing for action. And right now, if I had to place a bet (cash,
not bitcoins, please), I'd reluctantly have to predict the
anti-imagery folks have the better chance of winning.
There are many facets to this struggle, and they interact in
complicated and sometimes even seemingly contradictory ways. It's
largely a battle pitting technology against a range of personal
sensibilities -- and politics will be playing an enormous role.
And please note the following well -- if we techies attempt to argue
that no significant relevant issues actually exist, if we are
perceived to be arrogant in our reactions to the various concerns
being expressed, we are likely to be steamrolled by the opposition.
I said there were contradictory forces in play, and man, do I mean it.
In the aftermath of the Boston bombings -- cameras were everywhere
there -- which while horrendous and tragic, killed and injured fewer
people than just a few days of "routine" gun violence here in the USA,
we're hearing the predictable calls for vastly expanded
government-operated video surveillance networks, even though virtually
every study shows that while these systems may be useful in solving
crimes after the fact, they are of little to no use in preventing
crime or terrorism in the first place. This has proven true even in
cities like London, where there's a camera focused on pretty much
every individual pimple on each Londoner's face.
In some cities, like New York, the surveillance-industrial complex has
its fangs deeply into government for the big bucks. It's there we
heard the Police Commissioner -- just hours ago, really -- claim that
"privacy is off the table."
And of course, there's the rise of wearable cameras and microphones by
law enforcement, generally bringing praise from people who assume they
will reduce police misconduct, but also dangerously ignoring a host of
critical questions.
Will officers be able to choose when the video is running? How will
the video be protected from tampering? How long will it be archived?
Can it be demanded by courts? Divorce lawyers? Insurance companies?
Can it be enhanced and used to trigger prosecutions of new crimes,
perhaps based on items in private homes captured on video when
officers enter? What will be the penalties when clips of these
videos, often involving people in personal situations of high drama
and embarrassment, often through no fault of their own, leak onto
video sharing sites?
All of this and more is the gung-ho, government surveillance side of
the equation.
But what about the personal photography and video side? What of
individual or corporate use of these technologies in public and
private spaces?
Will the same politicians promoting government surveillance in all its
glory take a similar stance toward nongovernmental applications?
Writing already on the wall suggests not.
Inklings of the battles to come are already visible, if you know where
to look.
The push-backs against Google Street View -- more pronounced outside
the USA to date but always simmering in the background -- are one
obvious example. Even though this imagery is captured either from
public thoroughfares or with explicit permission, this extremely
useful service has generated considerable angst, and even though the
concerns are way overblown, we can't deny the angst itself is real and
of political note.
An ironic side note. People not infrequently send me emails asking if
I can tell them how to have their homes removed from Street View. I
point them at the established procedure, but I always mention that
having a gap in the imagery where your home should be is more likely
to attract attention to it than anything else. That never seems to
dissuade them, however. We're dealing with emotion, not logic.
Governments -- while ever expanding their own surveillance regimes --
can be extremely antagonistic to personal photography.
Only recently has a broad right for individuals to record police
activities in public places been established by courts, and trying to
exercise that right can still net you a club across the face and a
trip to a cell. Individuals are routinely harassed when taking hobby
photos of railroads, or bridges, or storefronts -- or pretty much
anything these days, based on asserted (but generally unsupportable)
security or privacy grounds.
Anti-paparazzi laws restricting personal photography have begun
appearing, as have a variety of laws aimed at the perverted practice
of "upskirting" -- both classes of laws often subject to much broader
interpretation by overzealous authorities.
Laws have been proposed restricting aerial photography in general, and
drone-based video capture in particular (the latter already seeing
considerable political traction).
And as an outgrowth of parental concerns (particularly regarding
third-party Internet postings of associated still and video
photography) there are efforts underway to restrict public photography
of children by other than their parents -- in a wide variety of public
locales -- a topic with a particularly powerful influence on
politicians, we should remember.
Laymen often assume that if you're in a public place, you can legally
do pretty much whatever you want in these sorts of contexts.
But that's not always true, and is subject to the whims of our
increasingly toxic political environment.
For example, many people believe that you can legally, secretly record
conversations in public. But this varies state by state. In
California, for example, under most circumstances you cannot legally
record a conversation, even in public settings, unless all parties to
the conversation agree. This holds true regardless of the recording
medium -- anything from an old tape machine to the latest wearable
video device.
This holds true in mobile environments like personal cars as well,
though governmental regulatory focus in that respect is more likely to
be aimed initially at perceived cognitive distraction issues.
At the federal level, there is already a concerted push to tightly
regulate both handheld and hands-free devices, with a special emphasis
on any devices in the visual field that can be used for texting,
display of movies, or pretty much anything else. The irony here is
that while one could argue that, for example, a wearable GPS mapping
display would be less distracting than glancing over at a dash-mounted
screen, the capabilities of these devices to engage in a broad range
of other potentially more distracting activities will likely attract
the attention of insurance companies and regulators (this is actually
already a topic of discussion among both groups).
There is in fact something of a possible worst case scenario that we
would be foolish to ignore. While techies and many others will be
enamored with and responsible in their use of wearable video/audio
gear like Google Glass, the potential exists for this class of
technology in mass deployment to trigger significant political and
regulatory backlash that could negatively affect other types of
photography as well -- everything from expensive cameras to the image
capturing capabilities of cellphones.
To understand this risk we must remember that politicians generally
take the path of least resistance with the highest "CYA" potential.
While spy-cams and other similar tech have long existed, the
widespread availability of wearable gear outside that context (note
we're not talking only about Google Glass, but the inevitable cheap
knock-offs that will not meet Google standards) could, for example,
trigger nervous parents' worst fears.
There will be a significant percentage of the population -- including
in stores, restaurants, other businesses, or wherever, who will be
concerned that in the restroom, or the gym, or the strategy meeting,
or wherever, that they just aren't sure that the guy with the glasses
isn't actually recording or streaming at that moment. People who have
heard stories of malware accessing webcams without lighting the
activity lights may never quite trust such signals again.
One would hope that politeness, common sense, and evolving voluntary
social conventions would deal with these issues appropriately,
reducing the pressure for governmental involvement.
But again, we're dealing here with emotion more than logic, and
emotion makes laws. Bad laws usually, but laws nonetheless. And laws
are often written with the minority of people who are bad actors in
mind, not the bulk of reasonable folks.
We all still end up having to live with these laws, in any case.
I don't have a "magic wand" solution for this situation.
My gut feeling though is that we'd be making an enormous mistake by
appearing arrogant about these matters.
Already, in various venues where enthusiastic supporters of such
technology gather, the primary attitude most visibly espoused has been
to dismiss those persons expressing concerns about these technologies
as being "out of touch" or easily ignored or beneath contempt.
If you really want to have politicians and regulators come down like a
ton of bricks not only on this technology, but on other aspects of
personal photography as well, then by all means continue with that
demeanor.
On the other hand, if you'd prefer a more beneficial outcome all
around, I'd strongly urge putting aside any arrogance, and instead
working with others to engage politicians and regulators in reasoned,
logical discussions that actually address their concerns (whether we
personally feel that those concerns are valid or not) in a cooperative
way. Otherwise, we're likely setting ourselves up for a big fall.
It would be ironic indeed if in the war against personal photography
and video, those of us wanting the maximal possible photographic
freedom allowed our own swagger to effectively point our own "weapons"
at our own heads.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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