UMTS video cellphones invade privacy - calls for compulsory registration

Original story

BUSWEB Digest 11/2004

UMTS video cellphones invade privacy

• calls for compulsory registration

The wildfire spread of videomobiles has brought authorities worldwide up against a thorny ethical problem.

Covert use of video cellphones - perhaps the 21st century’s version of the “Peeping Tom”- has become so widespread that our privacy is in grave danger. This is the view of an EU advisory committee currently deliberating whether all videophones should henceforth be subject to obligatory registration.

The prying may be accidental, or it can be deliberate voyeurism, even a form of industrial espionage. Whatever the case, users seem to be prone to leaving their phones accidentally or on purpose in a bewildering array of unsuitable places.

Videophones equipped with miniature camera eyes have been spotted in company meeting rooms, public conveniences, changing cubicles in department stores and swimming pools, in rented cars, school locker rooms and showers, and even in places where sensitive personal information is stored or processed.

Video mobiles, once just the toys of the very very rich, have mushroomed everywhere that the second-generation CDMA broadband network has been introduced. According to figures released by Nokia, video-equipped phones now account for almost one-third of the Scandinavian telecoms giant’s mobile phone turnover. The numbers include both devices using the old GSM networks at ISDN speeds and the new generation of devices operating on the broadband nets.

Video cellphones are of course predominantly used for perfectly legal and acceptable purposes. The most common use is naturally that of videotelephony, but a share of the devices in circulation also operate as ever-vigilant remote cameras, for example at the summer cabin or in the car, deterring would-be burglars. At the summer cabin, the typical energy source these days is a solar panel on the roof of the building.

The spying and voyeurism that has caused furrowed brows amongst the privacy authorities is a more recent development, and one that has been made possible by the introduction on the market of disposable, pre-paid SIM cards. These cards are not registered as they were in the past, as the price includes a predetermined number of calls, and there is no invoicing from the operator. It is to be expected that the abuses will only increase as the prices of video cellphones continue to fall. A spokesman from the EU Personal Privacy Ombudsman’s office in Brussels said laconically that phone prices are currently so high that people still tend to keep an eye on where they leave them. But prices are likely to tumble so much in the next couple of years, that we can expect video phones to become almost as typical a lost property item as the familiar umbrella.

Sneak viewing via video cellphones has also opened up a market for phone detectors. Interpol estimates that the keenest supporters of the new phone detection devices are to be found among professional criminals, companies fearing spying by their competitors, politicians and celebrities wishing to avoid paparazzi and embarrassing negative publicity, and young people trying to shake off their parents’ control.

A Nokia engineer pointed out, however, that the phone detectors are only capable of tracing and locating a video cellphone when it begins to transmit, in other words when it is probably too late. The use of a videophone as a remote burglar alarm camera is thus still quite effective and adequate for the security needs of the average individual, but it seems likely that the deliberate misuse of video mobiles will become more difficult with increasing numbers of detectors in circulation.

Hannula I. & Linturi R. 1998: 100 Phenomena. Yritysmikrot Oy, Helsinki 1998. Copyright notices ISBN 952-9508-18-2

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

• Ilmiön toteuma: 5/5
• Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: kyllä; arviointi-ikkuna on 1999–2009
• Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: kyllä, erittäin vahvasti
• Ilmiön ydin: kamerapuhelinten kaikkialla läsnä oleva kuvaaminen synnyttää uuden yksityisyysongelman ja vaatimuksia käytön rajoittamisesta.

Kamerapuhelimet yleistyivät nopeasti, ja salakuvauksesta, kuvien luvattomasta levityksestä ja työpaikkojen kuvauskielloista tuli arkea. Kaikkien laitteiden pakollista rekisteröintiä ei tarvittu, koska itse yksityisyysongelma oli ilmiön ydin.

Johtopäätös: ennuste toteutui erittäin vahvasti ja täsmällisesti ajoitettuna.