Think Twice Before You Snap And Post

// May 16th, 2006 // Interesting // 4,544 views

According to Wired Magazine, snapping pictures of strangers and posting them on your blog may land you in hot water for violating their privacy.

That said, you can basically snap away “…as long as your subjects don’t have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” – meaning they’re not somewhere they’d never expect a camera to be. Even if you photograph them while they’re on private property, you’re in the clear – just make sure they’re in plain view and you’re not trespassing.”

The fuzzy areas include copyright, security and misidentification issues, to name a few. Check out the Photographer’s code circa 1988 for an interesting perspective on this topic.

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8 Responses to “Think Twice Before You Snap And Post”

angel says:

2006/05/18 at 09:40

i love making people jump in the traffic by taking out a camera! i don’t actually photograph them- i just like making them nervous…
redsaid says:

2006/05/19 at 15:36

Hahaha for Angel’s comment.

Funny you should mention that. As a consolation prize for my laptop being stolen when I came back to SA (theft thanks to South African Scareways. Long story, I’ll share the gory details one day when/if you’re interested), my one sister gave me a snazzy cell phone/camera thingy (I-mate Jam or something… I know, I completely don’t deserve it for being so technologically UNsavvy) and anyway, I treated it as if it is a bona fide camera yesterday while attending the Food and Wine Show in Cape Town. You can check out my photographic attempts on my blog. (Click on read more to see more pics, obviously.) Anyway, the point I’m trying to make so very succinctly, is that I actually asked a girl permission to take her pic, even though she was like a model type on display to help sell coffee.
Aquila says:

2006/05/21 at 21:50

I guess then that we might be taking liberties of photographing vanity plates too…

Red: Nice pics – nice phone too, I’d like to find out a bit more about it, cos I have to upgrade soon…
Daedalus says:

2006/06/01 at 20:12

Hmmm… Nah … Vanity Plates are in plain view. They are exactly that vain and on display. As far as I can remember since the days I studied law of privacy: as long as you do not hang over a wall taking pics of people that think they are private at the time you should be fine. It is good practice to warn people that you indend to blog that they will be on a web somewhere – some people do not like the idea and we bloggers should respect that. Do watch for defamation law though – do not snap publish and discredit a person, that is a whole new law game.
Aquila says:

2006/06/01 at 22:14

So if I have it right Daedalus, if someone happened to infer that Thomas Mapother Cruise-missile was a tool, that would almost certainly be defamation…
Pets says:

2006/06/02 at 10:21

what can i say ! fabulous to see you doing well aquila !!
Aquila says:

2006/06/05 at 22:05

Thanks Pets…nice to see you found us…(finally)