Camera phones and our privacy
By Jessica Young and Aaron Massey
This season’s premiere of Grey’s Anatomy showed interns using camera phones to take pictures of their resident’s injury. This episode aired only days after a story broke about an incident at the University of New Mexico Hospital. Two employees at the University of New Mexico Hospital had used their cell phones to take pictures of patients and then posted these pictures online. These two employees were fired because these actions were a violation of the hospital’s policy.
The University of New Mexico Hospital is not the first hospital to experience problems with cell phone cameras in a hospital. In March 2008, Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA banned cell phones in the hospital to protect the rights of its patients because of past incidents in the hospital. San Diego’s Rady Children’s Hospital has banned cell phones in patient areas after pictures of children were found on an employee’s phone and computer. Other hospitals have also experienced problems with employees using camera phones in ways that violate patient privacy. Although there are policies are in place, enforcement is difficult.
Privacy law in the United States is historically tied to innovations in cameras. Warren and Brandeis wrote their famous article, “The Right to Privacy,” in response to the invention of the portable “instantaneous photography.” These fears have been reborn now that most people carry cell phones with them at all times and a majority of these phones have cameras within them.
Newer phones are capable of easily sharing pictures and videos with others – regardless of location. As a result, candid pictures can be taken at unexpected times and in someone’s worst moments. For example, a customer at a grocery store recently had an embarrassing picture taken in a moment of anger after the store couldn’t process his credit card. Within moments, the picture was online and generating comments. In the article linked above, Harmon discusses the use of the candid camera phone:
“In recent weeks the devices have been banned from some federal buildings, Hollywood movie screenings, health club locker rooms and corporate offices. But the more potent threat posed by the phonecams, privacy experts say, may not be in the settings where people are already protective of their privacy but in those where they have never thought to care.”
The recent incidents with cell phone cameras at hospitals are troubling examples of why people should be concerned about privacy in places they previously “never thought to care.” Hopefully people will become more aware of cell phone use and capabilities as it relates to individuals’ privacy—not just in a hospital but everywhere.