The rate at which people make use of public recording for different purposes is quite alarming. This is common among people who earn from content creation, such as prank videos or films. Lawfully, humans interaction with our environment is categorized into two segments, private space and public space. For private space; it can be understood to be our homes, private clubs and gatherings where recordings are forbidden.
While places like eateries, transit, tourist centre and in the street, these places are seen as public space. This is what we have accepted and tolerated over the years, so whatever recording is taken of us in places considered to be public space, we wouldn't care much about it. But those were days when there was less recording of our faces. People now make money filming people inappropriately, you can be walking through the street and someone suddenly pranks you to capture your reaction.
You see, in that moment you are not as composed as you would want to be in a public space not to talk of being recorded. But the person does it anyway without requesting your permission. For most people, they would let it slide since it has become a norm but is there any law protecting us from being recorded in a public space? there is. In my own country, under the NDPA - The Nigeria data protection act, capturing an individual image even in a public space is considered invasion of privacy because a person's image is part of his or her data, especially when done without seeking consent.
Here is where it becomes a little complex, in order for a person to raise an alarm or sue a person and have credible stand, he or she must be targeted in the recording, at least to an extent. This is why I specifically mentioned prank videos, these videos are created to capture people's reaction after they have been pranked. In a case like this, an individual face had become the focus of the filming not an incidental shot captured. In a case were a person accidentally appear in a recording, probably in a news report or some other kinds of recording, as long as the person is not captured in appropriate manner that might defame the person, it is not considered invasion of privacy.
Normally, such videos will go through editing and it is quite obvious that obscure scenes should be removed to avoid legal issues or to avoid scenes that would make the recording inappropriate for public consumption. For example, imagine someone recording in the street, probably street filming, and a passerby cloth suddenly drops. In a situation like this, the person is not the focus of the recording but despite that, the person's image and identity has been captured inappropriately. If whoever records the film still goes ahead without omitting that scene and broadcast it for public consumption. Then whoever produces such content will face serious legal issues without being able to hide under incidental shot.
It has become public knowledge visible to all, that a person has been captured inappropriately. This is why the broadcast industry goes through lot of lawsuit and scrutiny but in this era of content creators, these individuals have little or no knowledge of their legal boundaries. That is not the only issue, the citizens are not also aware of the law that protects them from being violated in public space. In a country where people don't know their boundaries, rights and limitations; right infringement becomes what we tolerate.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Your face alone in hive learners community.
Cover Image - generated using chatgpt
