Imagine waking up one day to find yourself in a video that was uploaded to the internet without your knowledge. Because of the rise of TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook reels, video content has become increasingly popular in today's world. People are having a good time creating content about themselves and others, sometimes privately and sometimes publicly, for both entertainment and commercial purposes.
However, this has raised a number of privacy concerns and questions. Should we not expect privacy when we are out in public? Is it legal for people to photograph or film us in public without our permission? Do we have the right to feel violated when we appear in other people's videos or photos without our permission? Can the law shield us from this?
While I can't answer all of those questions, I'd like to focus on how this newly normalized trend is affecting real people. I recently came across an incident in which a lady was informed by a friend that she was seen in a YouTube video. She reached out to the creator, respectfully requesting that the snippet of the video in which she was seen be removed. To my surprise, the video's creator was unapologetic, rude and flatly refused to remove the video.
Believe me, I've seen a lot of videos like this, taken and posted without permission. Individuals in public who had a reasonable expectation of privacy were deprived of their right.
I completely understand that one cannot expect to have complete privacy in public, but we should be a little more considerate at times. I mean, if the police department posts signs warning of traffic cameras ahead, shouldn't we expect at least some warning or notice from fellow citizens, so that anyone walking into the filming area knows what they're getting into? I mean, even in public, a private citizen has a reasonable expectation of privacy, and creators should recognize and respect that.
It's becoming a frightening world in which one must always be aware of themselves in public, constantly wondering how they would appear if someone were recording them. How are we failing to acknowledge how inappropriate this is? As much as we are glad to acknowledge what technology has done for us can we at least be responsible in how we handle technology and how it might affect others.
Again, imagine waking up one day to find yourself in a video that was uploaded to the internet without your permission. How would you feel? Would that not affect you?
So according to the law you can film anyone in public so long as there is no "expectation of privacy,” or rather a reasonable expectation of privacy, however it is good practice and recommended to photographers or videographers to blur out the faces and mute the audio