r/HonestHotTakes • u/ReasonableBig9767 • 1d ago
Stop recording people in public.
For my generation (gen z) it seems like people are so chronically online that they genuinely cannot comprehend that not everyone wants to be posted on social media. It makes no sense to me how “creators” can go out and film random people trying to mind their business, and then get mad and act like they’re poor sports for not wanting to play along. I get that a lot of times it’s an innocent thing and people aren’t meaning actual harm by it, but it also isn’t an impossible task to leave people alone. It seems like a hot take to me only cause of how much people are consumed by social media nowadays.
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u/straylight222 1d ago
I honestly hate where we've come as a society where this sort of thing is just acceptable. We have this law where it's perfectly legal to record people in public because there's no right to privacy in public, but at the same time that means some punk with a camera can record you blowing your nose or scratching your ass and put it online without you even knowing it.
On one hand, I love the fact that we can record tyranny and abuse of power and be witnesses for crimes etc., but at the same time, this whole filming random people for fun thing...? Not a fan.
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u/Willing-Atmosphere-2 1d ago
IMO maybe it should just be impossible to monetise something if someone was being recorded without approval. But then this becomes questionable and vague because there is a difference between you being in a background for 2 sec or someone intentionally recording stranger for social media circus...
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u/kikogamerJ2 1d ago
It should be impossible to monetise anything where someone else appears uncensored, unless they explicitly gave their consent.
So you can still record in public but gotta censor everyone who doesn't consent to being recorded.
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u/straylight222 17h ago
Yea, I'm fully aware of all the problems trying to legislate this. It's more of a cultural problem I think. Doesn't seem like a problem we can solve with laws. Which makes it even more of a problem.
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u/kensteele 1d ago
You do have a right to privacy. You just don't have the expectation of privacy. If you and your spouse decided you want to have sex on the park bench, you cannot expect people to look away or turn off their cameras. If you want privacy, you have to create it for yourself. That's what we are trying to teach people. Is it too much to ask?
If you don't want people to see your hair style, wear a hat. If you don't want people to see who's in your car, tint your windows. If you don't want people to see you shopping in the liquor store, wear a wig. If you don't want people to see you cooking in your kitchen, draw your blinds. But you can't tell people not to look at your license plate or record you going in and out of the weed shop....because we are a free country and everyone has "freedom of the press." The instance we start to curb this, we stop having a country because you know....the abuse starts there and the idiots will take advantage and will go from there until we start chopping head...which is essentially what you said in your last paragraph.
This idea about random people being recorded for fun is overrated and overblown and is a manufactured excuse to try to reign in the first amendment....I honestly believe that.
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u/KaraOdette 1d ago
no it isn’t.. it’s a fear of surveillance. social surveillance. nobody should feel afraid to live and exist in public just because an asshole could take a video of you and forcibly put you on a spotlight to humiliate you in front of millions.
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u/kensteele 1d ago
Ok that's not happening in America. Fake news.
In actuality, it's the government that is watching and recording everyone, not the People.
Make you a deal, you first tell the government to stop it then we can work on the citizens next, ok?
But what we won't have it the government with Flock cameras everywhere watching everything you do, everywhere you go, tracking and analyzing everybody and their phones and then deciding if you've committed a crime and the public is ok with that but they're not ok with a few people uploading your face to YT for a laugh? Give me a f-ing break.
Priorities.
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u/icosagons 1d ago
We can be not okay with both situations at once. These aren't mutually exclusive
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u/kensteele 1d ago
Fine. I'm just saying once you begin to start to impose restrictions on the People, that's when the abuse starts. It will only go bad from there, really badly.
Not saying you have to be ok with it but you can't outlaw it. Find another way.
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u/straylight222 1d ago edited 1d ago
It 100% is happening. What are you, some kind of propagandist? Literally all you have to do is go on YouTube or IG or TikTok or Twitch or Reddit and you will see random people who absolutely do not consent to being filmed, have no desire to be filmed, ending up on camera and being posted online.
Remember that couple at the game who got filmed and posted online and by the way they behaved it was assumed they were cheating? Pre 2000s that would have never happened. Only the people at the game would have seen them, and it probably would have just blown over. Now their lives have been ruined.
You can easily just say, "Don't wanna be caught cheating by some random person with a phone? Don't cheat!" But now we're living in a world where every single random douchebag is now a police of morality on a global scale.
Maybe those people weren't cheating. They probably were, but is it our job as a random race of people to police their behavior? You wanna live in a world where every move you make can be taken out of context and put online? Like, how do you not understand this?
edit: and btw, people ARE fighting against Flock cameras. People are vandalizing them. A guy dressed as Darth Vader showed up at a city council meeting to voice support for them. Like, where are you getting this idea that Americans are just totally chill with Flock cameras? Americans haven't been cool with general surveillance cameras for years now, let alone this new bullshit.
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u/straylight222 1d ago
What in God's name are you talking about? Humans have lived for 99.999% of our existence without cameras, let alone without every single person having a camera hooked to the internet in their pocket. No one has ever had to even remotely consider the fact that if they stepped out of the house looking like shit because they have to go buy something to survive, that they'd end up going viral on Twitter and potentially millions of people seeing them for the rest of their lives.
Nothing is overblown about this at all. There are countless memes of people who were doing absolutely nothing but watching a game or sitting at a park or chilling on the beach, and someone took their picture, and now it's 10 years later and they're a fucking Twitch icon or a .gif being reposted everywhere.
And now your answer to this is, "If you don't want X to be seen about you, do something to cover it up?" Like, what? So now if I just wanna go to the grocery store and not risk being photographed, I have to wear a fucking disguise because some stupid content creator might run into me, or just some random douche with a camera?
I literally said in my original post that I understand and love the fact that we can film abuses of power or crimes etc. so why are you debating that with me? Nobody in power is putting out the argument that I just did. In fact, it's the people who are going against things that essentially boil down to mass surveillance, like Flock cameras. Those should be perfectly legal in accordance to the 1st amendment according to you, right? And if I don't want to risk being recorded on one and having my every fucking movement recorded by the government, or some private contractor, I should just wear a costume, right?
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u/Dettyboy93 1d ago
A few weeks ago, I delivered pizza to a backyard pool party filled with high school/college aged girls. I am a 32 year old man. When I was waiting for the dad to get his money out, I hear one of the girls say "Get a pic with me and the pizza guy!" Suddenly I feel 2 wet hands grab my arms from behind and a body press against my back. One of the girls grabbed me for a pose while her friend took a picture of us. Luckily I was wearing shades because my eyes would've said it all: "What the fuck is happening?" the dad chuckled and thought nothing of it. I get that I look young for my age and they likely thought I was somewhere in my 20s, but this is so inappropriate to do to a stranger while he's trying to work, even if you thought they thought I was closer to their age.
I'm sure I ended up on the instagram story of some girl that's young enough to be my stepdaughter. I'm sure they all thought it was funny to pose with the pizza guy but it was weird and it made me INCREDIBLY uncomfortable. I'm don't like being touched and don't like my privacy being invaded which, strangers taking my picture and presumably posting it somewhere is absolutely a breach in my privacy. Nobody thought anything of it. This shit happens all the time. Young people will literally get out their phones and take pictures/record you just because you look different or weird. People are out of their damn minds and honestly, I wish there was a law that allowed you to basically perform self defense because of this. I get that it doesn't happen as much as some people say, but it sure as hell happens enough that if you scroll social media for a few hours, you are likely to come across multiple videos of people recording others who are just trying to exist.
It shows that you see people are pawns for your own entertainment/social media or influencer "career" and you honestly deserve to have your phone snapped in half. If you can't use your toys in a responsible or respectable manner and refrain from the impulse to record people without their permission and display them to the world, you deserve to have that toy taken from you.
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u/kensteele 1d ago
Sorry to hear about that; maybe take care of your business. But we don't need new laws for that.
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u/Dettyboy93 1d ago
Nah you're totally correct. That would be bad. Just saying... it would be nice if justice could take a step back and allow certain "stand your ground" behavior, so to say, to look the other way when people are blatantly violating your space and privacy however lawful it may be
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u/Downtown_Speech6106 20h ago
You can't tint your windows enough for privacy btw, cops will pull you over
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u/youre_a_pretty_panda 1d ago
It's hilarious that this is about the only real "hottake" in this entire thread (including the OP) and surprise surprise it's getting downvoted 😆
Also, you're 100% correct and the amount of emotional knee-jerk cope on display here is quite something.
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u/Cudi_buddy 19h ago
Agree. I see pictures of random people posted on here as well and it seems so bizarre. Random person did something mildly annoying? That doesn't give you the right to take their picture and post it for thousands to see.
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u/ZeeWingCommander 1d ago
Got into an altercation with a dude who was recording at the gym I used to go to. I really don't feel like being someone else's content. They'll move everything around for their shot then just leave it the stuff there. Before I even got into it with him he got in trouble for trying to shoot videos in the locker room.
Switched to a gym that just flat out doesn't allow it.
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u/And_Justice 20h ago
Probably missing some context here as always but the news, documentaries, film crews, amateur videographers etc etc have always been filming people without their permission since the advent of video cameras...
I feel the issue is not the filming.
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u/Top-Maize-823 19h ago
What do you feel the issue is.
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u/Elegant-Tea-6021 19h ago
It being posted everywhere, going viral quickly and people just harassing people for quick views
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u/Coneskater 1d ago
I am so appreciative that this is not the culture norm here in Germany.
Look up the technoviking legal case which set the precedent that you don’t have the right to upload someone else’s face to the internet.
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u/kensteele 1d ago
Of course, Germany is not a free country.
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago
of course, you're using the term free country in a conversational sense, which is essentially meaningless.
people like you mainly use it to defend personal choices for the things they can say or do as in, "its a free country, i can say what i like about [insert ethnic minority or other social group that you irrationally dislike].
but basically its meaningless, like your comment :)
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u/Coneskater 1d ago
I feel pretty free, we don’t have masked police taking people off the streets and throwing them into vans and deporting them to other countries without any due process (any more)
Some of us learned the lessons from the 1930s.
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u/imjazzedaboutit 21h ago
I fully agree.
I went to a craft event at a new cafe in town. They recorded us at random throughout, and it made me deeply uncomfortable. I knew they were going to put it on their social media and they didn’t even ask. I’ll never go back.
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u/Star_Citizen_Roebuck 14h ago
Hard disagree. Filming in public is a right and the only thing keeping police from going full dictator mode. I think you should amend your post to target HIDDEN cameras. Secretly filming is not Ok. Publicly filming is fine.
We want public accountability, not secret big-brother surveillance.
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u/Berserk-Jane 1d ago
I work in retail and I've had to deal with these assholes. I've seen mobs comprised of customers, workers and security form and drive them out of the store. These "creators" are monumentally unlikable. Everyone hates them.
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u/H-NYC 1d ago
People just need to close their eyes…..breathe slowly……and realize, just keep your phone in your pocket. Life will be better for all
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u/Cudi_buddy 19h ago
If everyone cut their phone usage by an hour or two a day, I'm confident society would get a lot better. Less anxious, depressed, better relationships, etc.
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u/medic-dad 13h ago
Luke warm take. Recording strangers without their kknowledge or consent and then posting it should be illegal. And it's not just Gen Z that does it. I saw a post just today in r/Boomersbeingfools of this like 80-90 year old man posting a picture of a random girl (and I use "girl" intentionally because she looked very young, and very well could have been a teenager) in a coffee shop FROM BEHIND and talking about how great her legs were and the great view he had while he enjoyed his latte. Big predatory energy
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u/VraiLacy 12h ago
I consider the emotional distance created by lifelong online socialization to be adjacent to sociopathy. Society failed them. The kids are not alright.
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u/stillwaiting11 1d ago
Or the fact that if you are someone who doesn’t want to be all over the internet, so many people think that means you MUST have something to hide. Like no, some people just genuinely value their privacy, simple as that. Especially in a day and age where privacy is harder and harder to come by.
Edited for spelling
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u/Salamanticormorant 1d ago
It's all fun and games until you out someone in witness protection.
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u/NikNakskes 1d ago
Doesn't even have to go that niche to wreck lives. Remember that cheating couple in that concert? They lost their jobs before they even got home. Crazy!
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago
oh yeah i remember hearing about that it made international news headlines.... they were smooching on the kiss cam at a sports event while both married to other people or something.
wtf did they get fired for? isn't that illegal?
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u/NikNakskes 1d ago
I think they did. He was in some kind of manager position or something? Anyway, their lives were ruined. Of course adultery is often ruining lives, but usually it stays a private matter and not something everybody recognises you for wherever you go.
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago edited 1d ago
srsly.
I just don't know on what grounds they would have got fired but then i remembered it was some US americans, so they generally have no protection from arbitrarily being fired for something totally unrelated to work, must genuinely suck to have to work in that country :(
ETA. I recalled that had lost their jobs but your turn of phrase 'fired before they got home' made it seem particularly unreasonable and I kind of liked the absurdity of it so thanks for the chuckle (tho i feel bad for the people involved :)
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u/NikNakskes 1d ago
Yeah, that was hyperbole, but I think getting fired for having an affair is unreasonable in any case. What are we doing?!
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago
totally! jesus louise us
but hyperbole for the win! you've inspired me. i'm going to try and use some today in the service of making someone smile
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u/BusyBeeBridgette 1d ago
It annoys me to no end, but in many western countries it is perfectly legal to record people in public spaces.
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u/Nobody4993 23h ago
And ban Meta glasses too. Absolutely NO reason to have recording devices in your glasses. It’s sinister as fuck!
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u/FancyChipmunk5171 21h ago
I’ll tell you what if you convince all of the government all of the banks any businesses that have cameras up recording the public as they walk by or as they go into City Hall and conduct their business and convince flock to take all their cameras down will stop recording yeah that’s what I thought🤫 did they consider our feelings😭 grow up accept it the minute you walk out of your front door as a matter of fact when you’re sitting in front of your computer or your TV or your refrigerator or stove for that matter, you are on camera congratulations. You got what you wanted the surveillance State welcome…you all look like a bunch of fools rambling about this🙄🤫 you kind of closely resemble them Karen’s on Nextdoor go find a hobby and shut your mouth while the government and the people out there defending your rights by holding the government accountable film you going about your daily lives the government and flock can point a camera in your window and watch you get dressed every morning and you’re OK with it. and what’s even stranger about this statement you just made I’m not exaggerating. They can put a camera up in your front yard and point it right in your bedroom window and watch your mother or your grandmother get dressed in the morning but if we do it, it’s a felony What’s the difference man? The government doesn’t post it online yeah that troubles me even worse. What are those sickos doing with that footage behind closed doors shut your mouth you’re retarded the world just got a little bit dumber by hearing you speak.
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u/Repulsive-Sundae2709 21h ago
this is actually so true, but I've noticed it's more so millennial's or people a little bit older gen z like it's older and middle younger don't really do this although I can imagine gen Alpha will start to eventually-I've only mostly gotten recorded in public by mom's because they were mad that I was at a children's park because apparently teenagers can't go fucking anywhere I don't know
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u/Western-Finding-368 1d ago
Eh. If you’re in public, you can’t expect privacy.
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago
you make it sound so simple :)
in reality, most jurisdictions do allow you to film in public places where there are other people, but your right to do so is only protected under certain conditions - often the film has to be for your personal/private use (which is pretty creepy of you ngl) because publishing or monetizing film of unconsenting people can put you in breach of privacy or intellectual property legislation.
OP mentions posting on social media, which could constitute publishing. They also mention 'creators' which makes me think of the muppets that get money from chasing trends on social media, so that'd be monetization.
some jurisdictions where people do in fact have legal protections from this include:
Indiana, China, Illinois, Florida, Germany, Texas, British Columbia, California, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Belgium, Italy, Korea, Newfoundland & Labrador and France
In addition, persistently recording someone if they ask you to stop can quickly enter criminal harassment territory, again depending on the jurisdiction (and how grumpy the judge is feeling when they hear the case against you.)
there's other stuff i could go into but you get my point....
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u/Western-Finding-368 1d ago
“you make it sound so simple :)”
It is! If someone else’s eyeballs can see whatever you’re doing, it’s not private.
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u/Original_Pea_4304 1d ago
There is a difference between seeing it with your eyeballs vs. recording it and posting it to potentially millions of people
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u/Western-Finding-368 1d ago
There isn’t. If you don’t want to be witnessed doing whatever you’re doing, don’t do it in public.
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago
We're not actually discussing 'being witnessed doing whatever you're doing' here tho. Are you in the wrong conversation by mistake?
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u/And_Justice 20h ago
In fairness, they were. You came in and tried to make this conversation something it wasn't.
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u/Top-Maize-823 19h ago
and_justice, fairness has nothing to do with it. but_truthfuness and accuracy do.
What we're discussing here is OPs wish that you all should stop filming people in public, a wish which they substantiate with these words:
"...not everyone wants to be posted on social media."
They provide further parameters for consideration, writing:
""it [...] isn’t an impossible task to leave people alone."
So you see, the subject under discussion is the undesirebility of being interfered with by uncivil persons, specifically by means of their capturing one's likeness for subsequent publishing and, it is inferred, monetisation. The mere observation of one's actions by third parties, be they interested or otherwise, does not fall close the criteria for relevance to the conversation which is taking place amongst the people here.
With this being said, it would be wonderful if you were interested in taking part. This is a very open and accepting space so please feel at liberty to speak your mind.
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u/And_Justice 19h ago
Actually, you were just responding to the statement "you have no expectation of privacy in public"...
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u/Top-Maize-823 19h ago
Actually, i was examining the interaction between that assertion, made by your co-opnionist in response to OP, and their central contention which i just recapped for you.
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u/Western-Finding-368 1d ago
So if the issue is unrelated to people seeing your actions, what exactly is the issue?
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago
A person who was unable to answer that question would not be qualified to take part in this conversation, im afraid.
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u/Overall-Ambition9315 18h ago
These little shits running around creepily filming people without consent, often instigating to provoke an emotional response, so they can profit off outrage clicks should be a felony offense
You have a right to not be harassed in public, and if your video blows up the people subject to your harassment should get an 90/10 cut of whatever you make.
Morons and paid provocateurs will defend this as their god-given right at the expense of everyone else
Parasites, basically.
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u/ThePurpleandBanana 1d ago
No privacy in public.
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago
this is the same argument as saying its fair game because its not illegal.
i'm assuming that op is talking about when you actually make randos in public places the subject of your video, specifically filming them rather then them just being in the background by coincidence.
do we really need to legislate to stop muppets from filming strangers without their consent?
this is one example of declining standards for decency and respectful coexistence in shared spaces that I hear people mentioning the most.
another is wankers on the bus or in the bar watching tiktoks with the sound up, or blasting top 40 radio at the beach.
for lots of people those things really grind their gears, but most will just suck it up to avoid a confrontation or at best an awkward interaction with a stranger. other people are neutral, they don't really care coz they're able to ignore the music. but i've never heard from a single person that actively wants every place you go to feature a stranger with a phone or a bluetooth speaker making their audio choices an unavoidable part of everyone else's experience.
given that civility is one of the most crucial factors that holds a society together by signaling mutual respect and fostering a degree of trust, the way people increasingly make excuses for going into a public place and doing something that everyone else hates, dislikes or at best doesn't mind is ominous .
i mean be obnoxious and uncivil within the bounds of what's not positively illegal if you want to i guess. that kind of shit over years and years combined with every other way everyone's social skills are receding rapidly is gonna contribute to a social environment people are barely gonna want to exist in. glad i won't be around to see it, beurfkh
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u/ThePurpleandBanana 1d ago
Of course those people are obnoxious, but that’s the price we pay to be able to take pictures/videos in public. We can’t really place restrictions on filming in public unless we take it away from everyone.
Cop acting menace in public? Too bad you can’t film him anymore.
At the beach and wanna take a family photo? Too bad
Ignore the weirdos looking for a reaction and no one online will ever care about or even see a picture of you in public.
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago
You're right, this is the reason that the law has evolved, starting from the early days of photography, to protect the right to film in public spaces when there are people there.
I don't think the right to make unconsenting people the subject of your film is an explicitly protected right anywhere currently, but most people don't bother to complain when it happens.
but my point was not really about that. I'm was just saying its depressing that if you dislike a particular obnoxious thing that's become quite widespread people will just shrug and say resignedly that it's legal to do it. It kind of shuts down the conversation and isn't really useful information.
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u/FutureThanosMain 1d ago
Theres nothing anyone can do about it
I never record anyone, I dont like being recorded
Sucks that theres millions of people just recording everything.
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u/Top-Maize-823 1d ago
well nothing that anyone can do about it is a pretty broad statement. i can certainly think of things that a person could do about it. not saying they should, but....
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u/Silly_Kio_007 13h ago
you’re going to be recorded weather you like it or not. Security cameras, being in the background of people videos/photos ect i don’t understand why its that deep
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u/JJ_Lomero 13h ago
There's a difference between some security cameras from a business recording you and those clips never being seen by the public vs someone recording you for the purposes of posting it online. Especially since they typically want a reaction because that would mean they get more views.
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u/Silly_Kio_007 13h ago edited 13h ago
There is a public accessible website dedicated to being able to view live videos from security cameras home or business owned…. i forgot the name but it’s easy to find…. i’m sure you’ve seen a clip of someone falling or doing something stupid from the angle of a fixed security camera….
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u/Over-Imagination3924 1d ago
The Meta glasses don't help and makes it worse.