Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

No Pictures, Thanks

Posted by timothy on from the grandfather-clause dept.

An anonymous reader writes "HP has received a patent on technology that would allow anyone who didn't want their picture taken to remotely instruct cameras to blur their face. While this is being promoted as a privacy measure, does anyone else see the serious rights issues here? What's to prevent this being used by police to block their images when they're beating or otherwise mistreating people? If this tech can be used to blur faces, it can be quite easily adapted to turn cameras off altogether, with deeply troubling implications. And even without these 'what if' scenarios, isn't there an expectation that, if you're in a public area, you're fair game for being photographed?"

4 of 749 comments (clear)

  1. Who would buy a camera with this "feature"? by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 1, Redundant
    The patent describes a system in which digital cameras would be equipped with circuits that could be remotely triggered to blur the face in any images captured by the camera

    So who would buy that?

    Unless... it somehow gets mandated to be in all cameras. Good luck with that.

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  2. Re:What a stupid question.... by Angry+Toad · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Why worry about cops first and not the (always) bad guys?

    The scenario is all about police beating innocent people. They're not the bad guys, and are thus rather worth worrying about, I think.

  3. Huge gaping flaw by polyp2000 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Unless aformentioned camera's are forced upon photographers by law or something- Papparazzi will just avoid buying and using camera's with this technology. The problem is that it is reliant on the person taking the picture to have the magic circuit inside. And lets face it if you are going to be taking pictures of celbrities baring all - or whatever - you aint gonna pick a camera thats not going to do its job properly.

    --
    Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
  4. Exactly - film by flashbang · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I use a Bessa-R, love that thing. It's a rangefinder and fully manual. I can shoot that thing at night with no flash, in low light, and no shutter lag that you usually get with digi cameras. It's compact but agile.

    That and buying good film on e-bay rocks. No digital for me right now, no thanks.

    --
    My sig left me for a younger user id.