4 ms·

If you are in the street, then yes, that is considered "public" and there's really not much I can do about it. I have zero expectation of privacy if you take pi

If you are in the street, then yes, that is considered "public" and there's really not much I can do about it. I have zero expectation of privacy if you take pictures of the front of my house from a public area. If my WiFi signal reaches the street, then, again, that's a public area. I may not like it, but doing it from a public area is perfectly legal (in the US at least). Now, you can't come onto my lawn to get a better signal, but there's really not much I could do if you parked on the street in front of my house.

judge2020 6y ago
Someone doing so would potentially violate wiretap laws, probably also stalking depending on the state.
- vntok 6y ago
  No they would not. Not until you actually went to the police station, got them to open a case, got an injunction and the "culprit" would get served with a formal notice. Then if they kept doing that would they potentially be in breach.
  - judge2020 6y ago
    I agree that detecting and pursuing this is unlikely to happen but it's still likely a violation of state wiretap laws and/or stalking. Anyone that wanted to do this would just lay a rpi with cellular and a battery so they don't need to be right outside your house all the time, making it both hard to detect and untraceable.
bkor 6y ago
> I have zero expectation of privacy if you take pictures of the front of my house from a public area. That's not accurate. The expectation of privacy is a legal term related to the USA. There's quite a difference in privacy you'd expect. E.g., just because you could see someone doesn't mean it's ok to hang a camera pointing to that place and record everything that's going on. Similarly, I do expect to have privacy in public places. It's weird not to expect that. Cameras have a big privacy impact, just because you could have a security person there doesn't mean that a camera is the same thing. > I may not like it, but doing it from a public area is perfectly legal If enough people do not like it the law should be adjusted. Too often the argument is that something is legal. This while people are changing and introducing new laws on a daily basis.
- chrisdhal 6y ago
  I agree. I'm never said that if enough people don't like it that it shouldn't be changed. I was talking "now". If what somebody is doing "now" is legal, then right "now" there isn't anything you can do about it. I can call the police, they'll either not come because it's legal, or they'll come, maybe talk to the guy, then say to me that he's not doing anything wrong. I'm didn't say I had to like it, just that sometimes there's not much you can do at the moment. There's a distinction.
TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
It grinds my gears a little when people make claims like "there's not much I can do about it". Seeing someone parked out the front of your house with a sensor array aimed at you isn't going to get you hot under the collar? You don't reckon you'd suddenly find yourself motivated to work out what you can do about it?
- chrisdhal 6y ago
  It grinds my gears a bit when others think there's always something to do about it. Yes, I could get upset, but at the same time, if they aren't doing anything illegal, then there literally isn't anything you can do about it. You can go ask them what they're doing, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have to stop. So maybe finding out what I can do about it is trying to get things changed, but at that moment, there's not a whole lot. This is all predicated on the fact that whatever they are doing is legal as it stands now. I don't have to like it to have to accept it. If you don't like it, then you do things to mitigate or change the laws. Similarly, last week I had a bunch of trees taken down from my back yard. They were near the property line, but distinctly on my side. My neighbor came storming over wondering what I was doing. I said I was cutting down my trees. He got upset because it changed the look of their yard (removing _my_ trees changed the look of his back yard), removed "privacy" (despite the fact their house is 30 feet higher than mine and therefore gave me no privacy), among a couple of other outlandish things. This, despite the fact that they were my trees. I told him it didn't matter, they were mine, and had them taken down. Everything I did was totally legal, but he didn't like it, but couldn't do anything about it.

judge2020 6y ago

Someone doing so would potentially violate wiretap laws, probably also stalking depending on the state.

vntok 6y ago
No they would not. Not until you actually went to the police station, got them to open a case, got an injunction and the "culprit" would get served with a formal notice. Then if they kept doing that would they potentially be in breach.
- judge2020 6y ago
  I agree that detecting and pursuing this is unlikely to happen but it's still likely a violation of state wiretap laws and/or stalking. Anyone that wanted to do this would just lay a rpi with cellular and a battery so they don't need to be right outside your house all the time, making it both hard to detect and untraceable.

bkor 6y ago

> I have zero expectation of privacy if you take pictures of the front of my house from a public area. That's not accurate. The expectation of privacy is a legal term related to the USA. There's quite a difference in privacy you'd expect. E.g., just because you could see someone doesn't mean it's ok to hang a camera pointing to that place and record everything that's going on. Similarly, I do expect to have privacy in public places. It's weird not to expect that. Cameras have a big privacy impact, just because you could have a security person there doesn't mean that a camera is the same thing. > I may not like it, but doing it from a public area is perfectly legal If enough people do not like it the law should be adjusted. Too often the argument is that something is legal. This while people are changing and introducing new laws on a daily basis.

chrisdhal 6y ago
I agree. I'm never said that if enough people don't like it that it shouldn't be changed. I was talking "now". If what somebody is doing "now" is legal, then right "now" there isn't anything you can do about it. I can call the police, they'll either not come because it's legal, or they'll come, maybe talk to the guy, then say to me that he's not doing anything wrong. I'm didn't say I had to like it, just that sometimes there's not much you can do at the moment. There's a distinction.

TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago

It grinds my gears a little when people make claims like "there's not much I can do about it". Seeing someone parked out the front of your house with a sensor array aimed at you isn't going to get you hot under the collar? You don't reckon you'd suddenly find yourself motivated to work out what you can do about it?

chrisdhal 6y ago
It grinds my gears a bit when others think there's always something to do about it. Yes, I could get upset, but at the same time, if they aren't doing anything illegal, then there literally isn't anything you can do about it. You can go ask them what they're doing, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have to stop. So maybe finding out what I can do about it is trying to get things changed, but at that moment, there's not a whole lot. This is all predicated on the fact that whatever they are doing is legal as it stands now. I don't have to like it to have to accept it. If you don't like it, then you do things to mitigate or change the laws. Similarly, last week I had a bunch of trees taken down from my back yard. They were near the property line, but distinctly on my side. My neighbor came storming over wondering what I was doing. I said I was cutting down my trees. He got upset because it changed the look of their yard (removing _my_ trees changed the look of his back yard), removed "privacy" (despite the fact their house is 30 feet higher than mine and therefore gave me no privacy), among a couple of other outlandish things. This, despite the fact that they were my trees. I told him it didn't matter, they were mine, and had them taken down. Everything I did was totally legal, but he didn't like it, but couldn't do anything about it.