IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 65
u
nless explicitly consented to by the
subject, the imagetaking (and by
extension, the video
or audio recording) of an individual is a moral intrusion against
personal privacy: a moral wrong
for which an over-riding claim of
justification must be established if
the image-taking is to take place
without the subject's explicit consent.1 Why should this be so?
In order to attain the moral good
of self-fulfilment an individual is
entitled to act in their self-interest
to the extent that in doing so they
do not cause unjustifiable moral or
unjustifiable material harm to others. All things being equal, there
should be no interference with the
pursuit of individual self-interest so
long as that pursuit does not unjustifiably harm others. Self-interest
can include the desire to remain
unnoticed by others, although this
is constrained when the conduct
of the individual concerned justifiably warrants the concern of
others. When a user of body-worn
video (BWV) technology engages
or interacts with an individual
who wishes to remain unnoticed
(which includes the wish not to be
photographed, videoed, or audiorecorded), the latter's moral interests in privacy are engaged.
Privacy has two aspects: the
abstract conception of privacy as
exercised through control over
information about self, and the
physical conception of private
space including the extent to which
an individual can expect to be private in a public space.
Privacy is grounded on individual autonomy. Where autonomy
does not exist (due to mental incapacity through youth or medical
circumstance, for instance), there
remain two further foundations:
1
Such an act is not necessarily a legal wrong: in
many jurisdictions there is no legal right to privacy. A moral right to privacy can exist even though
it is not reinforced with a legal right.
respect for human dignity; and the
"pragmatic imperative of limiting
abuses of official power" [6]. Each
of these concepts has its own relevance in relation to image-taking.
Autonomy includes having
control over how much information about oneself is disclosed to
(and therefore available for use by)
others. Discretionary disclosure -
choosing to share information or
choosing not to share it - enables
individuals to manage relationships
with others [5]. Taking images of
an individual is a means of capturing information about them which
could then be used to control or
coerce that individual [8].2 "The
power to exclude, delete, or misrepresent an event is with the wearer
not the passive passer-by," creating
an asymmetry of power between
the image-taker and the image
subject [2]. If an individual has no
control over when and how information about them is gathered and
used, their autonomy is compromised and so their privacy intruded
upon: the unjustifiable compromise
of autonomy is morally wrong.
Personal privacy is infringed when
the taking of the image fails to respect
reported without being photographed
but which also distinguished her from
any other car crash victim) justified
photographing Diana at her most vulnerable and helpless, unable to exercise autonomy. Did broadcasters and
newspaper editors have a moral justification for publication of the images
that was stronger (in this case) than
the moral interest in preserving
respect for human dignity, particularly the moral imperative of dying
with dignity? (To the extent that the
images were taken because they
would become valuable commercial
commodities for the image-takers,
to be sold to the highest bidder, the
dying woman was commodified
thus compounding the indignity.)
However, where an individual draws
attention to themselves through their
own undignified conduct (or deliberate publicity-seeking) and the conduct happens to be photographed or
filmed, then the subsequent harm to
the subject's dignity, and any diminution of respect for that person, is a
consequence of their conduct rather
than of the image being taken.
Government capacity for collating information about citizens and
non-citizens, through surveillance
Personal privacy is infringed
when the taking of the image
fails to respect the dignity
of the subject.
the dignity of the subject. Controversy remains as to whether press
photographers should have photographed Diana, Princess of Wales, as
she lay fatally injured in the wreckage of a car crash. It is not obvious
that the newsworthiness of the event
(which could have been accurately
2
Susan Sontag [8, p. 21] discusses the enrollment
of photography into the service of institutions of
social control. (There may, of course, be many
occasions when an individual wants to be photographed in which case no moral harm arises if the
image is put solely to the purpose intended by the
image-subject.)
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE
|
SuMMEr 2014
and biometric identification technology, has increased exponentially
through digital data technology.
Wireless technology has removed
the physical limitations that once
constrained government surveillance capability and capacity [1].
Through its authority and its access
to resources, a government has real
power to take images not only in
its direct interactions with citizens
(e.g., documenting an arrested person in the police station), but also
indirectly as citizens go about their
daily lives (e.g., via CCTV systems
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