[ExI] In future, will everybody wear their own body cam?

[efc at disroot.org]

On Sun, 6 Oct 2024, Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat wrote:

> 
> On 06/10/2024 19:23, efc at disroot.org wrote:
> 
> 
>
>       On Tue, 1 Oct 2024, Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat wrote:
> 
>
>             On 01/10/2024 15:08, swisscows wrote:
>
>             Is this a common problem in the US? This is an honest question. I've had my run ins with mainly arabian
>             robbers and assailants, but nothing serious ever happened and I managed to defend myself. _Despite_ probably
>             having experienced way more violence than the average sweden, I would not even dream of walking around with a
>             camera. It would not solve anything, and given the level of intelligence of the people involved in this
>             incident, as well as laws against filming in public, I don't think it would work.
> 
>
>             Who has such laws? (in the democratic west, I mean, of course. This discussion obviously doesn't apply to
>             authoritarian countries,
>             where 'the law' is whatever the local despot decides it is).
>
>             Filming in public is perfectly legal (as it should be) in the UK, the US, and Sweden, as far as I'm aware.
>
>             Ben
> 
>
>       In sweden and the EU it depends on what you do with it. If you film and then store the film and never do anything with it
>       or show it, it is most likely ok. If you film, in sweden, a object of national interest (airports, harbors, military
>       bases etc.) you are commiting a crime and will be fined and/or sent to prison. This is a new law that came into effect on
>       the 1/1 2024.
>
>       If you film people so that they can be identified and make that film publicly available, you are breaking GDPR if you do
>       not get their consent.
>
>       Putting up CCTV cameras, again filming in public, is strictly regulated, and having your Tesla parked regularly on your
>       street with an active camera could possibly break that rule.
>
>       So when it comes to the US I have no illusion of privacy protection existing. UK I have no idea, but since London is full
>       of CCTV cameras I would assume that any protection for the privacy of people has been eroded.
>
>       But above is based on my knowledge of sweden and swedish law, as a swede.
> 
> 
> That's interesting.
> 
> And it makes me wonder about the millions of doorbell cameras that automatically stream images of the street (and the people on it)
> to cloud servers scattered all over the world, including places like China and Russia. How do you 'strictly regulate' that??

They are not at all common in sweden. What I do know, but this is from a 
spanish perspective, is that yes, you are allowed to have a camera as long 
as it does not film any area or space that is public. So let's say you 
have a yard, in spain, you may have a camera as long as nothing but the 
yard is captured on film. Otherwise, you need permission from the 
authorities in order to have one.

In sweden, I would suspect it is the same, you can have cameras in public, 
but only if the government judges that there is a need.

> Or are these cameras not allowed in Sweden?

See above.

> In the UK and US, I think the principle is the same as anything you post on the internet: Regardless of the theory (the law, industry
> regulations, codes of practice, terms of use, etc.), in reality you have no expectation of privacy. GDPR is meaningless, it's like a
> sticking plaster on a sharkbite.

You have a very good point when you contrast the law and reality, and I 
agree with you. I do think there is more privacy "by default" in europe 
than in the US, but I agree that in practice, there are probably plenty of 
cameras, surveillance etc. in place that people do not know about. Online 
it is of course even worse.

When it comes to GDPR, in southern europe, this has become a cash cow for 
the government. They are actively hunting global IT companies fining them 
up to 4% of their global revenue and having a field day.

In northern europe, not so much. Actually the swedish government authority 
that investigates and enforces GDPR was fined in court for not taking 
enough complaints from the public seriously and closing the requests down 
without any consideration.

I submitted a GDPR-complaint against Ryanair, and it was immediately 
closed down. But, then I refered to the ruling where they were fined, 
re-submitted it, and the second attempt was taken seriously. So 
investigation in progress, although I suspect it will be closed down 
again after pausing long enough for it to seem as if they are actually 
doing some work. ;)

> Ben
> 
>