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What are your rights if someone films you in public?
Jesse Hyland and Nick Visser
ABC News
Tue 25 Mar 2025
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-25/nsw-privacy-filming-recording-rights-explainer/105092932
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Calls for better privacy protections after Sydney woman secretly filmed.
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A Sydney woman says she found it "violating and disgusting" when her
interaction with a man wearing sunglasses with a camera was posted by a
US content creator to his 1.3 million Instagram followers.
Lawyers and privacy advocates said the case was an example of why
Australia needed to enhance its laws to protect people from being filmed
without their consent.
These are your rights when it comes to being filmed or recorded in public.
What are my rights if I'm filmed?
Anna Bunn, a senior law lecturer at Curtin University, said each state
and territory had its own surveillance devices laws that dictated what
people's rights were.
"There are differences between them, but the commonality is that they
basically apply where a surveillance device is used to record a private
conversation or a private activity," she said.
"The problem is that there's a lot of doubt about whether they ever
apply when someone's in a public place."
Dr Bunn said the Surveillance Devices Act in NSW "only applies when
someone's recorded a conversation to which they were not a party".
But there could be other circumstances where the law is applicable.
"They may apply, especially if someone's been recorded, through the
window of a house, for example," she said.
When it comes to the location, Dr Bunn said there were "more options"
for people being filmed inside a private business or home compared to a
public place.
"It depends on the situation or the state, but the Surveillance Devices
Laws may apply, and then people have recourse to things like trespass,
so you can kick someone out if they're breaching the condition of the
premise," she said.
"There are more options when someone's in a private space to control
what happens within that space, than there is in a public place."
Laws could also apply when someone is being harassed, such as cases
where someone is being chased or followed, or filming people in a
private or intimate context, which can include recording in bathrooms or
upskirting.
UNSW cybersecurity expert Richard Buckland said under NSW laws, for
example, it was more egregious to record someone on audio.
"Recording someone talking when they reasonably would expect that
conversation to be private under the Listening Devices Act in New South
Wales — that's not allowed, that's an offence," he said.
"But video, that's different. There's very, very little to prevent you
recording people in public places."
What about my right to privacy?
Some states have a Human Rights Act that includes a right to privacy,
according to Dr Bunn.
However, there is no overarching right to privacy enforceable through
the law at a national level.
"There's not that much that can really prevent someone from filming,
either overtly or covertly," Dr Bunn said.
That's especially true as technological advances lead to recording
devices getting smaller and smaller.
What about hidden recording devices?
Ausma Bernot, a lecturer in tech and crime at Griffith University, said
there was a major difference between seeing a video camera or larger
recording device in public you can walk away from and a covert piece of
technology you may never know is there.
Dr Bernot said tech companies were pushing for innovation and "not
necessarily wanting to think about the unforeseen uses of these glasses".
The glasses believed to have been used by the US content creator who was
recently in Sydney, were developed by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, the owner
of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
"From Meta's point of view, really what Mark Zuckerberg is trying to
build is something really new and really cool," she said.
Dr Bernot, who is also a member of the Australian Privacy Foundation,
added the public had a responsibility to understand the consequences of
using new devices like smart glasses, because such technologies were
impacting life in public spaces.
But she said new legislation should be interpreted to place the burden
of responsibility more on companies than the public.
"We never really asked for this, it just flopped into the market," Dr
Bernot said.
What can I do if I'm filmed?
Dr Bunn recommends contacting the site and the owner of the video to
take it down.
However, Dr Bunn said research had also shown content was often not
removed by social media companies, even if it breached their guidelines.
If someone is being cyber bullied or harassed, another potential avenue
would be to contact the eSafety commissioner to request an intervention.
People who have been filmed can also go to the police, who, according to
Dr Bunn, would decide whether to "bring charges under the criminal
device laws".
"I suspect they're [police] generally reluctant to even do that where
something's occurred in public, but that certainly would be up to the
police," she said.
If the video or image of the individual is intimate, it's recommended
people report it to the police.
What experts want to see
Dr Bunn said Australia needed "stronger protections of image" even where
the protections don't depend on whether the image is private or the
publication breaches an expectation of privacy.
"From a practical and pragmatic point of view, there's lots of
difficulties with that kind of law in terms of enforcement, especially
when we're talking about social media companies that are offshore and
individuals who are outside the jurisdiction," Dr Bunn said.
Dr Bernot said legislation had not dealt with the spread of
internet-connected devices well.
"It can be written in a technology-neutral way … but it is not often
predicting future threats or harms," she said.
"The majority of responsibility, in my view, should lie with the
technology companies being made responsible for the unwanted
surveillance of people and the negative effects on their wellbeing."
Mr Buckland said he "absolutely" wants to see Privacy Act updates,
saying he believed people "really don't value privacy highly enough In
Australia, and it's not informed".
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Roger Clarke mailto:[email protected]
T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Visiting Professorial Fellow UNSW Law & Justice
Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
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