Posted by Brad on September 30, 2007 at 20:52:24:
There's a good program that's been airing on Court TV called "The Investigators" recently. It involves people that secretly videotape others in public. A lot of it is about people secretly videotaping hookers and johns, some involve videotaping fights in public parks, etc. There's even some where the guy videotapes couples in cars in parking areas having sex. These video vigilante tapes have been ending up in court as evidence.
They discuss whether such taping is an invasion of privacy, or, perfectly legal. What was stated on the program was that the US Constitution and Bill of Rights never indicate anywhere that citizens necessarily have "a right to privacy". It is also mentioned that each state varies insofar as what state laws say, but most share the same concepts and statutes.
The conclusion was that in most cases, it is usually a violation of law if the person being taped would have a "reasonable expectation of privacy". If you enter private property, stand in someone's side yard and videotape them through their windows, it's illegal. Also, new Paparazzi laws make it illegal to use telephoto lens even if they are used by someone on public property if they are viewing into private areas.
However, the hidden videos and photos of nudity at public beaches and parks shown on Coccozella's site are not illegal. If someone is at a public beach and is walking naked about, they have no reasonable expectation of privacy - afterall, they are in public. Now if someone sneaks a camera into a privately owned nudist resort and snaps away, it would be interesting to see where the law falls on that - I don't know.
Given this has been a topic that has come up frequently, I thought I'd post something a bit more authoritative about it.