If it does I'd expect it to catastrophically fail because the codes will undoubtedly get reverse engineered and everyone would be able to easily reproduce the signals, and they could easily be broadcasted everywhere until people are so annoyed they can't take pictures anywhere that it'll get dropped.

Also unless it somehow gets baked directly into the camera chip, you'll always be able to root your Android phone and disable it, and jailbroken iPhones probably will easily disable that "feature" too.

I also think recording police activity especially if you're involved is a protected constitutional activity. Generally you always have a right to record in public.

I guess that it is possible as our society becomes increasingly authoritarian. This is why I'm following Fair Phone. It's a pure Linux phone that's slated to become available this year or so I remember reading.

If this kind of thing becomes widespread, then people will find a way to broadcast fake anti-camera signals as well. Imagine a thief breaks into your house and you want your security cameras to record them... but guess what, the thief broadcasts an anti-camera signal and they all switch off, completely neutralising your security system. "Unintended side-effects"

This seems like it would probably be trivial to defeat either via legacy tech or simply by removing/disabling the receiver, interrupting the signal itself, hacking the firmware, etc.

Police could try to counter this by using lights (either visible or anything a camera's sensor can pick up) to blind the cameras, but then people could also start doing stuff like using polarizing filters to minimize this, hiding cameras, or some other more clever method I'm not smart enough to think of.

They do it with printers and a hidden symbol on money already.

What do you think the odds of this happening is?

Extremely high for at least some places if politics goes the way I'm pretty sure it will.

That sort of thing is part of the reason I always want a phone that can side load applications. Not that there aren't end runs around apps from 3rd party app stores, but at the least it would be an arms race. And my next phone will probably be a Fair Phone.

I believe that eventually in the future it might become a "war" between the police having some form of device on them that prevents a phone from even being able to be turned on within a large radius, let alone being able to record audio/video, and those trying to record such acts. If anything, it might also turn into a thing of people turning to creative and innovative ways to get around that technology in that potential future and the police responding with updates that make whatever we use to counter absolutely meaningless.

It might turn into a thing - if it happens/becomes reality - that the vast majority people get used to it, similar to how in Japan, phones made specially for their market are required to have a sound go off when the camera is used. That's a future we don't want or need.

Haha, what a great idea! I love it! Sending me a signal about things you don't want me to record!

I would build two things. First, an antenna that detects and (using multiple copies) locates these signals on a real time, public-access map.

Second, I'd build a security camera with a wide angle lens that turns ON whenever this signal is received.

Sure, 90% of people don't know how to do these things -- but I do, and I can put them in a store and the results on a website. Most people know how to buy a thing and plug it in, or access a website!

Then I'll manufacture a ton of them at a factory here in Vietnam, and you will be able to buy them at a reasonable price. I'll make a tidy sum, pay a bunch of taxes that will build highways and schools, and you'll have more freedom than you started with.

We all win!

100% odds this happens

It's already happened with some things so the technology is there and used, so it's not a matter of if, but when.

But then I could imagine a resurgence in analogue video and photography equipment. Mechanical apparatus that imprint on film; where that kind of technology would not work.

They will attack the internet itself to stop things like that from spreading. Basically the plot of Metal Gear Solid 2 and the illuminati censorship AI; except you don't need a giant robot and there is no illuminati.

No, only if you run proprietary software. As long as you can run FOSS, this will not exist. Especially with FOSS forks of Android right now, they're the most mature and private as they've ever been.

Idk, that seems like a difficult technical and political challenge, so I don't think that's very likely.

However, what I think is much more likely to happen is cameras detecting copyrighted content and not recording it. Or automatic instant takedowns of copyrighted content when the video is shared. Then, all the government would need to do is play copyrighted music when they don't want you to record.

Oh wait, this is already happening [1] albeit not commonly or to an extreme extent. But really, this is why we need to be very careful about technological enforcement of laws. It can lead to unintended (or intended) negative consequences to civil liberties. And its also why its critical for your devices to always be acting on your behalf, and not for the government or corporations.

1: https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/1/22558292/police-officer-video-taylor-swift-youtube-copyright