Are You Being Photographed Without Consent?

On St. Patrick’s Day in 2016, something interesting happened to me. I had got back from the parade in Boston and was going through pictures and videos on Instagram that had hashtags related to the parade. What I found was a video of me and my friends dancing around a big group of people, but I had no idea I was being recorded or who was recording me.

In this day an age almost everyone has a phone in their hand. People like to take pictures and videos almost everywhere they go. Parties, sports games, sight seeing, or just sitting in a coffee shop; these are all places that people like to post pictures and videos of themselves and others on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, VSCO, and probably the biggest of them all, Snapchat. The thing that I think about almost everyday is how many pictures I am in without me even knowing it. I think that it’s impossible that I wouldn’t be in a couple photos that someone I’ve never met before took of me without me even knowing it. I’m really curious to see if someone created an application that told me just how many times I’ve showed up what the number it would be.

On one hand, I think it would be pretty cool and I’d get to see myself in a natural way where I wasn’t thinking about trying to look good for the camera. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want any pictures of myself that are unflattering to end up online. The conundrum that we face is the issue of privacy. According to Deborah Ng, some companies and institutions have even banned them for many privacy reasons. Who has the authority to say if taking a picture of someone who doesn’t know is wrong, and to whom they send it to. Should we have the right to be able to see ourselves in these post? Technology isn’t at the point in time where we can see pictures and videos of ourselves that others took of us unless they actually tag us in the post.