Upskirt Photos The Real Problem Of Cameraphones In The Workplace

from the blackberry-porn! dept

Mon, Apr 17th 2006 11:33am — Carlo Longino

There's been plenty of talk overstating the dangers cameraphones pose in the workplace. Most commonly, it's the supposedly heightened risk of industrial espionage that gets people saying they should be banned, but apparently that's ignoring the real risk: that an employee might take some distasteful, or even illegal, photos and their employer might be held liable. While businesses have an interest in keeping their employees on the straight and narrow, you'd think that employees' interest in keeping their job and staying out of legal trouble might provide ample motivation to not take any untoward photos with a work-provided phone. The columnist's logic doesn't really work out -- take the example of internet access, where despite filters or blocks or policies, employees could still get into plenty of trouble if they're so inclined, not to mention that a company's liability often doesn't extend as far as some might think. If employers followed his line of thinking, they probably wouldn't provide pencils, since they could be used as weapons, or coffee, since it might drown somebody.

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

20 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Kilroy Was Here, 17 Apr 2006 @ 12:00pm

What ever hgappened to personal responsibility
Maybe I am naive, but is the individual not ultimately responsible for thier choices and actions. What would make it my employer's fault if I decided to act out on an urge to do something illegal or immoral or otherwise detrimental? What is wrong with our society is that we seem to have forgotten that an individual is responsible for their choices and actions ... and parents are responsible to teach their children the diference between RIGHT and WRONG
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mr. Green, 17 Apr 2006 @ 12:15pm

Personal responsibility what??
Get a clue, man! This is AMERICA! We don't have personal responsibility here. It's ALWAYS someone else's fault...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Richard Schmitt, 17 Apr 2006 @ 12:21pm

Re: What ever hgappened to personal responsibility
American federal law and the courts have long held that employers can be held liable for the illegal activities of their employees directed towards other employees. This is necessary to provide all employees, to the extent possible, with workplaces free of discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, creed or color.
To hold otherwise, employers could discriminate against groups of people by allowing other employees to create a hostile work environment to drive those groups of employees off the worksite.
Employers are asked to apply usual work rules and policies. Employees who were unable to follow rules conducive to a safe and productive workplace must be disciplined or discharged.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TheHorse13, 17 Apr 2006 @ 12:24pm

Re: Personal responsibility what??
You're right. This is America and you've hurt my feelings. Now I must sue you.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sean, 17 Apr 2006 @ 12:34pm

Personal responsibilty and the biggest fish in the
It is true that there is little personal responsibility, but it is the biggest fish in the sea rule.

Who would you sue if someone does something against you, the person who did it who mabye has a house and some money and a bunch of debt? Or would you sue the company they work for who has millions of dollars?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
wolff000, 17 Apr 2006 @ 12:38pm

Another prime Example
This country iss really going down the toilet and it seems it is happening faster and faster. I hate to say it because I love my country ,which is the USA. All the laws that supposedly protect us are just used to screw us at the same time. Employers should be responsible if and only if the actions were reported and nothing was done about it. That is not that hard to do everytime I talk to my boss about anything important I email him all the details first, then I email him again after we talked verifying everything we went over. That way I have proof and he knows I have proof no back pedaling is possible. Well possible but he would look rather foolish. If you do something stupid like snap a pic of the secretaries undies she should sue you not the company. The company had nothing to do with you taking the picture and I doubt they would condone such activity. People need to suck it up and take responsibilty for a change.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Stinky Jones, 17 Apr 2006 @ 12:38pm

If I had a cameraphone...
I'd take a photo of Mary's boobs. You know... Mary from accounting. Did you see that hot, low-cut blouse she was sporting today? BONER!!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Larry, 17 Apr 2006 @ 1:09pm

Link please
You forgot to link to the page with the upskirt photos!!!

Signed,
Lar
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Nipponese, 17 Apr 2006 @ 1:15pm

Upskirt has been a big problem in Japan where practically everyone has a decent resolution camera phone. This is why you cannot purchase a camera phone which you cannot silence the shutter sound. Every single camera phone there makes a loud noise when taking photos. It gets rather annoying after a while tho.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Arochone, 17 Apr 2006 @ 1:44pm

Re:
It's not too hard to shut off the shutter sound...just disconnect the speaker! :P
I did that on my digital camera actually...it was annoying me...and I never view anything with sound on there anyways. Sure, with a cell phone it'd be a bit more challenging because you'd need the speaker, but really, would it be THAT hard? I think not. Just put a jumper in the side if it wired into the speaker...d/c the jumper, no shutter noise.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I amy be anonymous, but I am no coward!, 17 Apr 2006 @ 2:35pm

Re: Shutter Sound
The Motorola V710 allows you to edit the shutter sound as well as turn it off. And yes, I did buy it in the USA.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Joe Smith, 17 Apr 2006 @ 3:38pm

Japanese kinks
The use of camera phones in Japan is as much the fault of a Japanese cultural tendance to perversion as it is the result of camera phones being available. You cannot extrapolate from the Japanese experience to North America.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2006 @ 4:55pm

If your skirt is that short, you are already giving me an upshot. Why would it matter if I took a picture of it? If you walk down the street naked, it is wrong for me to snap a pic of you?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mousky, 17 Apr 2006 @ 5:09pm

Re: Re: What ever hgappened to personal responsibi
Nice canned answer, but you did not respond to the original poster: what ever happened to individual responsibility?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Rob Mayfield, 17 Apr 2006 @ 8:02pm

Re: Re: Personal responsibility what??
It might be "America" where you are - but this is the Internet; difficult as it might be to imagine a world exists outside the continental United States (which is much smaller than America, North and/or South), it does - and the Internet reaches many of those far flung places.

Here endeth the lesson.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
?, 18 Apr 2006 @ 1:19am

Somebody elses fault!?
If women are afraid of getting their goodies shown to the world, without their consent then:

Wear pants, not a skirt to work.
Wear clothes that don't allow the boobies to pop out.

Now, I realize that those steps won't solve the problem of sexual harrassment in the work place, but it will make it very difficult for that horn-ball in the corner cubical from getting a picture of you that he could sell online.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
?Szygin, 18 Apr 2006 @ 9:12am

Sell?
Use the Internet much?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Silent Watcher, 18 Apr 2006 @ 10:58pm

Personal-responsibility is long dead
It is such a sad state of affairs that the assumption of personal responsibility is long dead. Liberal voters and politicians, in a futile attempt to make everything fair for everyone, all the time, have managed to make things unfair to everyone.

At the place that I work, we used to have an incredible first aid cabinet. It was stocked with several different headache pills, sinus tablets, stomach remedies, treatments for colds, allergies, cures for aches and pains of almost every common illness. All individually packaged, all free to any employee.

Until last January, that is. Now all the meds are gone, replaced only with a sign that says "due to liability considerations, we no longer provide free medications".

Once again, misguided liability laws make personal responsibility a thing of the past. Even those of us who prize it, practice it, get punished for it. And those who disdain it are rewarded for their irresponsibility.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
where are they???, 10 May 2006 @ 3:50am

pictures, i dont see pictures...
link.. bump
[ link to this | view in thread ]
female employee, 20 May 2006 @ 12:40am

Re: Link please
larry's in the good old" old" boys club ! U sexually harassall of us girls every day so i'm not suprised at ur comment!
HOWS UR WIFE & KIDS DERK????
[ link to this | view in thread ]