Law may curb cell phone camera use

Cell phone camera voyeurism will soon be a federal offense if the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act of 2004 continues its nearly unopposed march through the U.S. Congress.

The bill, designed to protect people's privacy from prying camera phones, needs only to pass the U.S. House of Representatives and to be signed by the president to become law. While Congress didn't consider it before recessing this week, proponents say chances are good the bill could pass this year.

Still, cell phone manufacturers, while not actively opposing it, are quietly skeptical of laws that criminalize cell phone camera snooping.

Privacy in public

The Video Voyeurism Prevention Act prohibits photographing or videotaping a naked person without his or her consent in any place where there can be "a reasonable expectation of privacy." Punishment would include fines of up to $100,000 or up to a year in prison, or both.

S.1301 was first introduced in 2000, two years before the first cell phone cameras appeared in the United States. Its original language focused mainly on privacy infringements using hidden video cameras.

After cell phones with cameras caught on here in 2002 and 2003, language was added specifically addressing their potential for privacy violations, and S.1301 then drew greater attention in Congress.

"Now that the bill includes cell phone cameras, there has been a lot more interest in it from the public, the media, and from lawmakers," says Tim Johnson, spokesperson for its sponsor, Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio). "Lawmakers were asking us about cell phone cameras and whether they were covered in our bill."

The Senate passed the legislation unanimously in September. The House Judiciary Committee approved it with very little opposition in May.

Industry skeptical

Cell phone vendors say such a law may be hard to enforce at best, and may even be a deterrent to promising technology.

"I think it will just create a false sense of security," says Keith Nowak, Nokia Corp.'s media relations manager. "If somebody wants to do something illicit, they will always find a way to bypass the law."

Nowak and other vendors deny voyeurs are any more likely to snoop using a cell phone camera than using other technologies such as digital cameras. "At the end of the day, there is very little difference between a cell phone camera and a regular camera," Nowak says.

But Cedric Laurant, policy counsel of the advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center, says the opportunity differs.

"Most people don't carry digital cameras around with them," Laurant says. "With a cell phone camera there is more opportunity to take snapshots of interesting images, and unfortunately this can include images than can threaten privacy."

Voyeurs using cell phone cameras could easily pretend to be doing something else, like dialing or talking, while actually taking pictures, Laurant adds.

Nowak says any new law should not single out cell phone cameras, but should apply to "any technology that captures images." Oxley's bill, however, apparently proposes to do exactly that -- in cases where images have been captured without consent in private places, it makes no distinction about the technology used to do so.

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