A ‘decorative coach’ who secretly films women in Eindhoven with a special camerabril, or YouTubers who play jokes with passers -by on the street. Not everyone is waiting for it. Experts are worried, and not only because according to the Privacy Act it is not allowed: “It is a kind of dehumanization. If you talk to someone through a camera, you are actually working with your followers, and not the person opposite you. It’s not about the contact, but about a nice video.”
A man has been posting films on social media for months on which he tries to decorate girls and women on the street in Eindhoven, in the pub or on the grounds of the Technical University. The women do not know that they are being filmed and that the images are online, Omroep Brabant discovered. The man himself stays out of the picture. The portrayers are not happy with the attention, but it is not always clear what you can do about it. While the consequences can be great.
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Secretly film
It is clear to Gerard Jan Ritsema van Eck, university teacher IT law: what the man does in Eindhoven is not allowed. That is in the secret, the women clearly do not know that they are being filmed, let alone that the images appear online. “In that case it is called secret filming, and that is simply in the Criminal Code,” said Ritsema van Eck. A police spokesperson said that victims can always come to the desk if they want to report. “We will then see if there is a criminal offense.”
That sounds a bit less firm. Ritsema van Eck understands that: “Ultimately, the police and the Public Prosecution Service (OM) decide what they do with it. It is an area with little black and white, and a lot of gray.” This is how the case changes if someone knows that filming is being held, or if the filmmaker wants to card as a journalist. “Then a declaration is difficult, but you can start a lawsuit.” Although not everyone will feel like it: “Often those are dragging things,” said the teacher.
We bought a camera labbil ourselves and put it to the test:
Waiting for privacy settings …
‘Terrible phenomenon’
Jan Matto, expert in the field of ethics and digitization, is shocked when we tell him about the ‘decorative coach’. He mentions the actions of the man in Eindhoven a ‘terrible phenomenon’ and also sees a task for Meta (the company behind Facebook), which sells the camerabril together with Ray-Ban. The thing is popular: the production was recently increased by ten million pieces per year.
“These companies have a social responsibility and duty of care for their users,” says Matto. According to him, far too little of that is coming, he believes that companies should do more. Not only meta, but also other social media companies. New legislation should change this in the future, making it easier to remove videos. GroenLinks-PvdA and CDA recently came up with a bill that prohibits filming traffic victims. Matto argues that these rules also apply in other situations in which people are filmed unsolicited.
‘The revulsion grows’
In addition to the technical, legal side, there is another side to the case. Lotte Houwing of Privacy Organization Bits of Freedom stands out something when she watches films made on the street. The filmers behave differently than they might do without a camera. “It’s a kind of dehumanization. If you talk to someone through a camera you are actually busy with your followers, and not with the person opposite you, who uses as an instrument. It’s not about contact, but about a nice video,” she says.
The consequences can be great if an assumed private conversation suddenly appears online and everyone can find something about it. According to Houwing, fewer and fewer people are taking this for granted. “We hear more and more sounds about this, the revulsion is growing. It is not only about vloggers on the street, but also about doorbell cameras or cameras that the municipality hangs everywhere.” According to her, more and more people are ready to be filmed everywhere.
Message sent
The women who spoke Omroep Brabant do not take any further steps against the decorative coach. Some of them sent him a message asking him to remove the images, he did.
The municipality of Eindhoven and the Technical University call on women who have been filmed to report. De Efteling says that secret filming in the park is not allowed, but that performance against it is difficult. There have been no reports about the man yet, but a spokesperson indicates that women can come by if they want to report a report.