Concerned about privacy and people secretly snapping photos in places where they shouldn’t be, the South Korean government is considering a law which would require cameraphones to emit a loud noise whenever a photo is taken. This is being dones ostensibly so that other people will know when a photo is being taken, but besides being annoying, it probably won’t really solve anything. If someone wants to snap pictures surreptitiously there are plenty of others ways to go about it that don’t require the use of a cameraphone. And why stop with cameraphones? Why not put make all digital cameras, or even small film cameras, emit a noise when their shutter is snapped? How about having tape recorders make a loud noise when the record button is pressed, so that people don’t have to worry about being clandestinely recorded? Like it or not, we’re just going to have to get used to the fact that it’s really easy to secretly videotape, audio record, or photograph someone, and we should strongly enforce and strengthen our privacy laws rather than try cripple our electronics.
