Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Editor's Perspective -Picture Imperfect

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 01:43:45 -0400

Editor's Perspective -Picture Imperfect
By Jason Ankeny
April 9, 2003

For all its advances, technology has never been
much good at inspiring common sense among
users--the growing number of communities
banning mobile phone use in public settings and
while driving is testament to that. So it's really
no surprise to hear that mobile camera phones
are already making enemies. Now, an increasing
number of gyms and strip clubs across the
globe, fearing the obvious violations to the
privacy of their employees and customers, have
begun instituting bans on the devices. Saudi
Arabia's Commission for Promoting Virtue and
Preventing Vice has vetoed camera phones
throughout the nation, while the Italian
Information Commissioner has instituted new
regulations demanding that photos only be
taken for personal use. Even some Hollywood
studios have put the smack down, outlawing
camera phones from advance movie screenings.
And if Tinseltown is shying away from photo
ops, you know something's wrong.

A significant number of people have predicted
big things for wireless imaging applications. In
fact, in a recent Wireless Review Web site
survey that asked readers, "What would you
consider the 'killer app' for mobile data networks
in their current technological state?," 19%
responded "wireless imaging," behind only mobile
Internet access (34%) and e-mail (26%). That
makes the growing opposition to mobile camera
phones that much more troubling--many
companies are counting on wireless imaging to
generate significant revenues in the years to
come, but it's not going to happen if consumers
discover that camera phones have been banned
everywhere they go.

I want to believe that people can police
themselves--you wouldn't bring a standard
camera into a gym locker room and start
snapping photos, so why would you do the
same thing with a wireless device? I think that
the vast majority of people still adhere to basic
social mores (not to mention the law), and that
these bans on camera phones are an
overreaction to worst-case-scenario fears. But
in the minds of lawmakers and business owners,
the wireless populace has clearly proved it
can't be trusted to behave responsibly, which is
why so many cities are writing legislation
against mobile use (and why you can't go see a
movie without the theatre screening some kind
of reminder for the audience to turn off its
phones). Once you've gotten burned by past
iterations of wireless technology, you're not
about to let it happen again.

Wireless imaging applications are still in their
infancy, so there's still time for the industry to
reach out to lawmakers and customers alike.
Education is critical--it's imperative that the
industry doesn't allow concerns over imaging to
escalate beyond its control. Explain to
lawmakers exactly how wireless imaging works,
what consumers can and cannot do, and how
to implement rules that promote basic rights to
privacy without severely compromising the
rights of mobile phone users. Likewise, users
need to fully understand when it is and is not
appropriate to snap and send photos with their
phones, as well as the penalties should they
violate any laws or regulations. It seems like
simple, common sense stuff--but then, not so
long ago it also seemed pretty obvious that you
shouldn't be gabbing away on a mobile phone
while changing lanes at 80 m.p.h., and look how
that turned out. Let's not make the same
mistake twice.

 http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/apr03/code.html

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