Slashdot Mirror
New Australian Privacy Laws Could Have Ramifications On Google Glass
An anonymous reader writes "Recording private conversations or activities using Google's Glass eyewear or similar wearable technologies without consent could become illegal under a push to overhaul Australian state and federal privacy laws. From the article: 'The Australian Law Reform Commission discussion paper, released on Monday morning, recommended 47 legislative changes aimed at updating existing privacy laws for the digital age. It proposed the government introduce a statutory cause of action for a serious invasion of one’s privacy, in what would be the first time a person’s privacy has legally been protected in Australia. It also recommended harmonising rules for using technology to monitor and record authors, which are currently legislated by state governments, to deal with the implications of new technologies such as wearable devices and drones.'"
Information is for the state. You will not record and share among yourselves. You will not become more aware.
You will not develop the capacity to police yourselves. That is for the state.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Google Glass only records from a first person point of view, and is less sensitive than normal human eyes or ears. So, pretty much by definition, if it can be recorded by Google Glass, it isn't private: the person doing the recording needs to be visibly present to record the information.
What such laws are really primarily aimed at are to protect government officials, politicians, and the rich and famous from having their wrongdoings documented.
Society will have to get used to a post-privacy world eventually.
Society will have to get used to murder and tyranny eventually. A post-privacy world is a world where the government can do as it pleases, regardless of whether people like it or not.
While they are a Government body the Australian Law Reform Commission is almost completely powerless. They are "commissioned" by the government in power to look at a particular concept and they then report back. In this case the previous Labor government commissioned them to look into "What can we do to protect people's privacy!?!?!?!?" this was political grandstanding at the time and given each state is the one that determines the rules when it comes to privacy has absolutely no chance of being rolled out.
For example it is legal to record a telephone call you are involved in, without telling the other person, in Queensland. But it's not if you are in NSW. NSW has the tightest privacy laws so basing their study on them is logical from that perspective but also means the starting point for every other state is further along than the article would make it appear.
Hungary law requires photographers to ask permission to take pictures.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/...
Just saying one is going to need to read up on local legalities if/when they visit a foreign country; disabling the appropriate Google glass feature as required.
Check out Istanbul Turkey on Google Earth, many areas are like this (almost blacked out). Google glasses on the ground in that area could cause the wearer problems.
In other news in Australia our Attorney General is defending free speech, in particular the right to express racist views.
So if you record someone being a racist in a public place, the racist calls the cops and get the witness to racism put in jail.
(2 and half more years of these conservative loonatics)
http://www.news.com.au/nationa...
This article is somewhat alarmist. There's nothing changing for Google Glass. The courts have successfully upheld the old privacy laws regardless of the technology used to invade privacy. The key part here is that the changes in laws doesn't actually change what is classed as private or public.
- It's already illegal to record people in private without their consent, I don't understand where the AFR get's the idea that it's not.
- If you're in a public place you're typically not going to bump into any privacy problems (legally anyway, some people go insane at the sight of a camera).
Despite what the article says, nothing in the proposed changes make it illegal to record a public conversation. Australia's has a long history of case law that covers what is private and what is public. What these laws are doing is simply codifying the rules the court already apply.
Nothing to see here, wearing Google Glass is not going to be illegal and you're free to record anything with Glass that you are free to record without Glass as you would right now. I.e. don't go peeking into your neighbours window.
Makes it sound like the government cares about your privacy while they continue to spy on everything you do: http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
From TFA:
Under the proposal, courts would be able to compensate victims, but the ALRC said it would not propose penalties for offenders.
It doesn't seem clear that they are proposing much of a ban on anything, really. This looks like more of a compensation scheme if someone does infringe on your privacy in this kind of way and you then suffer some significant, financially quantifiable harm from it.
I would argue that many/most infringements on privacy (or the chilling effect that comes from the threat of having your privacy infringed) are not so easily quantifiable, that the law in many places has little meaningful recognition of non-financial damage, and that some behaviours can't be fixed by compensation after the fact anyway. It doesn't look like they're going as far as addressing these issues so far, though.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
"Recording private conversations or activities using Google's Glass eyewear or similar wearable technologies without consent could become illegal "
SO recording private conversations or activities using my cellphone or other recording device is 100% legal? No it's not.
What is it with these incredibly low IQ politicians making laws that are 100% useless? there are existing laws that work just fine and fit the case perfectly.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Google glass would be better. Bullies everywhere will rejoice now. They can operate without fear. ...and without a free Google glass taken off the kid who was trying to record the bully.
France does something similar, has for a while: http://photothisandthat.co.uk/...
Fuck you.
The key word here is "recording". Something recorded is less private than something ephemerally witnessed by another person.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
...about them? Are employees allowed to wear them at work? Including during meetings and other group activities?
It's not really about privacy if I'm allowed to film my family on vacation with a camera, but can't do the same with Google glass. If I'm in a public space, do I really have a right to privacy? I don't think I do.
See "Black Mirror" S01E03 "The Entire History of You".
These laws against recording in public are an early step toward curtailing freedom of speech. The recent popularity of variations on this, particularly with regard toward laws against recording police officers should be a tip-off.
We already have laws that differentiate between what's acceptable in public versus private space: walking around naked, for instance. Blurring this line looks like something that favors those who would erode and limit the public space.
So, I'm reading this to include all police and retail security cameras.
"Hi, welcome to Walmart, sign here to allow us to monitor you while you shop. Have a great day!"
Society will have to get used to a post-privacy world eventually.
Society will have to get used to murder and tyranny eventually. A post-privacy world is a world where the government can do as it pleases, regardless of whether people like it or not.
Then we need to start figuring out if there are ways to preserve liberty without privacy, because pretending that most public interactions will not be recorded in the near future is silly. The technology will be there, and it will be too powerful for governments to just outlaw (and as you insinuate they have little incentive to even try). I would rather us not just stick our head in the sand and actually start to evolve as a society. Our civilization changed from small close knit communities where there was very little true privacy to a globalized community where anonymity is easy to attain. I don't find it hard to believe that we can weather the storm of returning to a limited-privacy world again without reverting to tyranny.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Just ask the last glasshole who happened to stare at me. He's still crying for that. Literally.
Man, I'd LOVE to meet you with a set of Google Glasses on. There's something very satisfying about publicly beating the shit out of someone and then proceeding to put them in jail as well.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
I'm afraid you don't really realize the public attitude about google glass. There have already been several reports of aggressions to google glass users. Not only nobody has ever been convicted or jailed, but in some cases people even applauded the aggressor.
Have fun.
Ah well. Glass half full is better than nothing. Last time a guy hit me I smiled at him, thanked him and beat the shit out of him in front of his friends and a whole crowd of people and left him bleeding on the sidewalk, and man... I had so much adrenaline in my system I was shivering like a man with hypothermia, I felt like a million bucks. It's not often people provoke me in a fashion that allows me to unleash myself without fear of legal repercussions, and when they do, it feels like Christmas morning.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
I wrote an essay on this very topic a few weeks ago entitled "Privacy and Secrecy" and published it in my journal.
http://slashdot.org/~ShieldW0l...
No easy answers to be found in it, but I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, and I believe that what it really boils down to is, my privacy doesn't come from you not knowing what I'm doing, it comes from you not forcing me to interact with or acknowledge you.
You want to experience this for yourself? Go piss in a urinal. The other guy is right there. You have no secrets. But, you all stare blankly at the wall, do what you've got to do, and you're fine with it.
We need to establish taboo's as a society, that's all. It's already happening. That's what the efforts to combat "cyber-bullying" are, an effort to establish appropriate taboo's.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth