In an interesting case out of Seattle, Washington, a man has been walking the streets and taking video recordings of random people as they go about their daily lives. He films them in school, at work, in the car, on lunch, leaving a grocery store, etc. And when he is asked by these people what he is doing, he simply says, “I’m just taking a video.”
And guess what? It’s completely legal! Any type of videotaping in a public area in which you wouldn’t have an expectation of privacy is 100% within our rights.
Understandably though, these people he is filming ask him to leave, to “get away,” that he’s “violating their rights” and that they did not give him permission to record them. But he does not abide, and the people he is recording tend to grow angrier.
While it is reasonable that these people get upset, it is interesting to note that the same thing happens to them every day on the sidewalk, in stores: Literally anywhere you are outside of your home, you are being captured on a surveillance video camera somewhere, whether you see them or not.
So what is the difference between a man holding a camera in your face, and being watched by hidden surveillance and security video cameras?
Read more about Seattle’s Creepy Camera Man.
