Within the advent of digital media and smart technology, cameras have never been smaller, more discrete, or equipped to capture high resolution, ultra HD footage. And so with it, brings a new era of technology-based privacy issues. Most recently this has been in the media, as a small army of so-called “pick up artists” approach, and often harass, unsuspecting women, secretly recording the entire interaction, so they can teach other young men how to be equally annoying and repulsive to women. As a filmmaker myself, who has filmed in public spaces many times; I strongly believe our right to film in public is an essential part of our human rights and freedoms, and is critical to a liberal society, citizen journalism, and crime prevention. However, with the changing nature of camera technology, clearly something must be done to address this emerging problem now that cameras can be so easily hidden, even when right in front of you. And this issue with meta’s ‘Smart Glasses’, is not the first time such an problem has presented itself. In fact, @HotDudesReading, continues (as it has for years) to encourage its following to secretly photograph men, without their consent, so they can be posted online to millions, with weird, sexualizing captions, that will make you cringe. So what kind of example are we setting? What kind of behavior does this enable? And how do we respect people’s privacy, whilst protecting our right to capture images in public? What do you think?

2026-02-13