Re:Redditor finds unsecured surveillance cameras seemingly p...
by kube-system on Wednesday May 13, 2020 @04:25PM
(#23171415)
I did notice that you said "as a service". That doesn't change the situation, really. The person who films is responsible for making sure they film legally. The added "on behalf of a customer" probably doesn't make a difference, unless your local laws care about whether your filming is commercial or not.
Changing the technology from 35mm film to VHS Camcorder to AI powered drone doesn't make a difference. Adding abstractions between the lens and the operator makes no difference. If your organization films with cameras, it should make sure it does so legally.
> So, again: if one of the legal requirements of the CDaaS service is to automatically avoid (or at least not-surveil) any private property—then what would the rule for that look like?
If you have determined that you need to "avoid private property" in order to comply with the law, then the rule you'd want to implement is "don't film private property".
You know how a politician might hire a PR firm to produce a "day in the life of" documentary about them? Part of the PR firm's job would be to handle any negotiation of the local legal terrain required to get filming rights for locations, and likeness rights for other people appearing in the film. If they couldn't get such rights, it would also be part of their job to inform the customer of what things they now can't film, so that the customer could either make the choice to just leave some parts of their day un-filmed; or to re-arrange their schedule so that only legally-filmable events are on the roster for that day.
A hypothetical "camera drone as a service", in my mind, would be that, but handled mostly by an AI, maybe with OnStar-like interactive support if you get into an edge-case. (Again, it's a stupid idea! It's a thought-experiment, not a viable startup. :)
There are many services where part of the service you're paying for, is the service provider's expertise in navigating the local legal landscape in their own regulatory domain of expertise. In fact, that's entirely the point of some services: anyone can do their own accounting in a technical sense, but you pay an accountant because they know how to do your accounting in a way that complies with all your local regulations.
So, again: if one of the legal requirements of the CDaaS service is to automatically avoid (or at least not-surveil) any private property—then what would the rule for that look like?