Subject: [NEXTEL-1] New Jersey Considers Camera Phone Ban

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 03:17:38 -0500

New Jersey Considers Camera Phone Ban

As New Jersey State and other law enforcement officials warn about the illegal
use of camera phones, the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee is considering a
ban on these devices. The committee is drawing up laws addressing camera phone
use and the illegality the devices bring with them when used as a “Peeping Tom”
tool. The Committee recently approved a bill that would make it a crime to
surreptitiously view or videotape someone in a bathroom, bedroom, dressing room,
or other private place where people undress or engage in intimate activity.
===========================================================================
Cell-phone 'eyes' spark privacy fears at the gym

Tuesday, November 25, 2003
BY GABRIEL H. GLUCK
Star-Ledger Staff

Soaring sales of camera cell phones and a mounting concern over privacy has
YMCAs and fitness centers scrambling to prevent video voyeurs from invading
locker rooms.

The Senate Judiciary Committee met yesterday in Trenton to draw up laws
addressing this new wave of technology. The old "Peeping Tom" statutes,
officials said, no longer cut it in an age when cameras that look like phones
can be used to secretly photograph unsuspecting victims and then transmit those
photos in seconds to the Internet for millions to see.

Last July, a state appeals court overturned the conviction of a Manasquan man
who hid a video recorder in a floral arrangement and photographed two
unsuspecting female houseguests as they undressed and showered in his bathroom.
The court ruled that under existing law, the law is broken only if someone
"peers into a window or other opening" -- and the defendant had not done so.

Moving to fill that loophole yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved
a bill that would make it a crime to surreptitiously view or videotape someone
in a bathroom, bedroom, dressing room, or other private place where people
undress or engage in intimate activity.

The bill also would make it a crime to disseminate sexually explicit photographs
of unsuspecting locker room users, houseguests, tenants, ex-spouses or others.

"In the United States, there is a huge lag between technology and the law ...
and a constant struggle to catch up," said Professor Leslie Ann Reis, director
of the Center for Information Technology & Privacy Law at The John Marshall Law
School in Chicago.

"Technology has really affected the ease with which that zone of privacy can be
invaded," she said.

While traditional cell phones had not presented much of a problem, increasing
sales of cell phones with cameras -- some even have a zoom lens -- have changed
the landscape, prompting concerns over privacy and safety.

In the first six months of this year, an estimated 25 million camera phones were
shipped worldwide, beating digital cameras for the first time by nearly 5
million units, according to American Technology Research.

For area YMCAs and fitness centers, the growing popularity of these phones is a
source of concern, so much so that some facilities have dramatically restricted
the use of cell phones.

Bill Lovett, who oversees the YMCAs in Metuchen, Edison and Woodbridge, said the
Y now bans all cell phones from its locker rooms and prohibits the photographing
of any child without a parental release form.

The policy, which affects the nearly 25,000 members at the three branches, has
been in effect for nearly six months without any problems, he said.

"I think everybody understands it," Lovett said. "It's a children's-privacy
issue and it's an adult-privacy issue."
Other Ys are now following suit. At the Summit and Fanwood-Scotch Plains YMCAs,
similar policies are being drafted that are expected to go into effect by
January.

The New York Sports Club, with 20 of its 130 fitness centers in New Jersey,
banned cell phones in late September, and Bally Fitness Center, with 15 of its
nearly 400 facilities in the Garden State, is reviewing its policies.

"You can't tell the difference between cell phones, and cell phones with
cameras," said Susan Gerson, a spokeswoman for NYSC.

The company never had a policy regarding cell phones until the new camera phones
started appearing. While there weren't any incidents at NYSC facilities, Gerson
said, after "everything we're hearing," the company decided to restrict cell
phone usage to the lobby area of its clubs.

Karen Dreixler, executive director of the Fanwood-Scotch Plains Y, said that
when the senior staff met recently to discuss the problem, "there was a sense of
disbelief."

Dreixler told her staff about the notices she received from the Y's insurance
company and from national YMCA headquarters, saying the issue was being left up
to the local chapters to decide the best course of action.

For a Y whose facilities are used by about 12,000 children and adults each year,
there seemed to be little choice but to draft a policy restricting the use of
cell phones. The concern now is not to go overboard, Dreixler said.

"We're trying to be prudent about it, but not alienate people," she said. "We're
not going to pat people down."
But with the sheer number of children in the Y's charge, something has to be
done. "It's up to us to protect them as much as we can," she said.

But it is not just the ability of phones to take pictures that raises concerns.
It is also the ability to transmit those photographs and post them on the Web.

Unlike the Peeping Tom of another era, whose voyeurism had an audience of one,
the Internet now makes it possible to record and share images for millions to
see.

State Attorney General Peter Harvey and other law enforcement officials have
warned that New Jersey's current "Peeping Tom" law is not adequate to address
the threat to privacy posed by miniaturized cameras.

Verizon Wireless is one of several companies selling the new phones. The new
restrictions are not expected to affect sales, company spokesman David Samberg
said.

"Verizon Wireless expects its customers to use common sense, be respectful, and
be mindful of the laws out there," Samberg said.  Some electronics companies
already bar employees from using camera phones in research and manufacturing
facilities out of fear that the devices could compromise the security of
sensitive data.

But along with the technology that brought the new problems may be a solution.
One British firm is testing a special transmitter that would be capable of
deactivating a phone's imaging system. The camera would be reactivated as soon
as the phone is out of range.

Some facilities, such as the West Morris Area YMCA in Randolph, have decided to
wait before taking any action.
"It's definitely on the radar screen," said West Morris CEO William Lamia.
"There will be discussion in the future."
But at this point, Lamia said, "there aren't that many members who even have the
phones. And those working out don't even carry them."

Staff writer Robert Schwaneberg contributed to this report.

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-12/106974337948160.xml?starledger?ntop

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