Wednesday, July 02, 2008

"No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy"

That's the contention of the defendant, Mark Jahnke, accused of videotaping his girlfriend in the nude, in a case brought before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.
"It is unreasonable and impossible for an individual to walk around nude in front of another person and claim an expectation of privacy with respect to that person," Jahnke's attorneys argue in a brief to the court.

The state Department of Justice counters that shared intimacy is not an invitation to roll the tape.
It seems unlikely that the court will overturn the conviction. Intimacy, even involving full nudity, is not a licence to take photos or video without consent. The ultimate issue here is defining what is, or is not, a reasonable expectation of privacy. As technology leaps forward, and there are cameras in every hand, in every home, on every street corner, and even in the sky, that definition will change.

Does the choice to fly on the nation's airlines bring with it a reasonable expectation of privacy? The government will soon say no as it continues to add full body-scanning machines which graphically strip away the clothing of all passengers.

Have you used the Google Street View feature of its maps? I found my house in seconds, and when I rotated the image to show the other side of the street, there was a picture of my neighbor sitting on his front porch.

People will eventually come to the realization that privacy is becoming a thing of the past.

UPDATE: Here's a good essay entitled "The New Privacy".

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