Companies Develop Camera Phone Policies
from the blame-technologies-or-users'-actions? dept
Found over at Alan Reiter's wireless blog is the news that more companies are coming up with human resource policies concerning camera phones (telling them, basically, that using a camera phone to take "sexually revealing" photos of co-workers is wrong). Alan Reiter thinks this is a good thing, and that companies should all be writing such policies. Personally, I think it's going a bit overboard. If companies need to write up new HR policies for every new technology that comes down the road, they're going to be a lot of busy policy writers out there. I don't see why the policies can't be general enough to cover things like this. Clearly, violating the privacy of a co-worker or doing anything that makes for an uncomfortable work environment for others shouldn't be tolerated. Specifically singling out camera phones is paying too much attention to the technology, and not enough on the actions.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's not about the phones
People are going to figure out he's some kind of perv and avoid him.
But, what if instead that same guy (prior to picking up a reputation as a perv) gets a camera phone and every once in a while during a meeting does that little 'my cell phone is vibrating' jerk and reaches in his pocket, discretely keeps his phone below the surface of the table like he's checking to see who is calling and then puts it back in his pocket.
Are people going to suspect he's a perv? Probably not.
If you see someone manipulating a camera it's a safe bet they're taking a picture and you can cover your face, cross your legs, etc. If you see that same person maniuplating a cell phone you have no reason to assume they're taking a picture.
That's the problem with cell phone cameras.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: It's not about the phones
How does having a policy in place change any of what you wrote?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: It's not about the phones
If a company has a policiy in place forbidding cell phones cams, then when a perv posts the "under table panty shots" gets caught by someone who doesn't like them, they're protected. "We have a policy against that, you're (picture taker) fired and you (the outraged party) can't sue us."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]