this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025
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Privacy
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Prior to our wonderful times, and even more so in the UK, public space meant that were no right to privacy to be expected at all while using said public space because, you know, it was public. But the moronic age we live in have managed to change that. So be it.
So, worry not my dear friend: as a law abiding citizen myself, I dutifully respect your so-called freedom to use what is supposed to a public space as your very own private space, and I 100% gave up on photography the second time I was confronted to the consequences of people considering their freedom implied they were to decide what 'public' meant.
Instead, I switched to sketching the very same people in the very same public space.
They may be as annoyed by me doing that but good luck forbidding me to sketch in a public space or even proving it was them I specifically I sketched... as, even though I do enjoy it, I suck at sketching ;)
There is an expectation of privacy anywhere.
The GDPR applies to everyone - including individuals. How long will you store my data? With whom will you share it? How can I contact you and revoke my consent of being recorded? What purpose is the storage of my data?
It does not infringe on your right to photograph in public by the way. As long as the person only happens to be in the photograph somewhere in the background without being the focus you are free to photograph anything and everything.
Your targeted photographs violate the freedom of movement of those you photograph. You are not free in your decisions if you are recorded. You will take the fact you are recorded into consideration and adjust your decisions accordingly.
What prevents someone from innocently setting up a security camera - which happens to also record the entrance of an LGBTQ bar and anyone who enters and exits it? Surely it would be a shame if this footage was then entered into facial recognition software to create a list of people. That is fully legal in countries without the right to privacy in public like the US.
You can use public spaces all you like, you do not get to use my face however you like.
I said not allowed to take picture never told it was to publish or share them. Really, if you have access to you should read recent justice decisions and see how, here in France and in Germany at the very least, they will almost be in favor of... not the photographer, whether the photo was meant to be published or not, whether the photo earned them a cent or not.
For the rest, we live in a free society and I will happily let anyone practice photography as they see fit (provided they do it politely) but don't expect me to pretend trends have not changed in regards to justice and the right to image, because those trends they have indeed changed and not in favor of photographers.
Thing is, that google and apple will, for most people, automatically upload photos to their servers and process them in ways none of us are really certain of. By photographing with a phone, anyone's face could be matched up with a time and place. And then there's the potential problem of the person uploading it on purpose.
Photography isn't the problem - it's the tech attached to it.
Personally, I'm with you - because I'm not a person of interest. If I was a political agitator, e.g. trying to start a McDonald's union, I might feel differently
Indeed, it's a mess. And that mess is one of the reasons we have been witnessing a shift against the very notion of public space.
I've noticed a few people trying to argue with me specifically. I have no idea why (like I think I said, I just mentioned what I know and I don't even do photograph anymore) but that's fine with me. And while they seem to be so vocally willing to defend their undisputed (by me, at the very least) right to privacy I can only wonder how many of those privacy warriors are carrying their own spyware riddled smartphone absolutely everywhere they go, including to the most private place I can think of: the bathroom. And I feel 100% reassured knowing they will pick the right fights ;)
I don't really care whether you benefit in any way from my picture, published or not, for profit or not. If I don't want you to have it, you don't get it. What gives you the right to take my picture? Besides, why do you even want it if you're not using it for something?
Check the definition of the word public in 'public space'.
But I think you should first need to work on yourself, that would help a lot being able to have a discussion instead of what looks a little bit too much like an argument we certainly should not have you and I as I don't know you and have as much desire to photograph you as I wish to eat poop.
Have a nice day.