Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Click Snap Flash

I've been hearing a lot about photography bans, with security and police harassing folks for taking pictures.

Here's an example article, which shows this is has been a growing problem for years now.

It seems silly to worry about photos as a planning aid for terrorism - tools like Google Maps, Google Street View and Google Earth give you an easy overview of most public areas.

The most foolish part of trying to ban photography is how unenforceable such laws are. As cameras get smaller, it's going to be impossible to tell who has a camera, who's clicking away.

It won't just be spies who have hidden cameras - they can be built into your sunglasses, which Bluetooth syncs the pics to your phone, which then automatically uploads them to your online account or distributes them on a public sharing space. Law Enforcement might confiscate your glasses, but there is no film or memory card for them to take.

I can foresee pics coming to be used something like Twitter - I could clip a small wearable camera on my collar in the morning, and it would take pics at regular intervals all day, posting to a private or public web page - an automatic photo collage of your day. I'm sure there are already folks doing this.

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