Research Paper on Unwanted Photo Capturing: The Right to Privacy in a Digital Age

Abstract

People like to capture the moment, recall it and in some cases use it to recall memories. Nearly everyone has a mobile with some standard features, one of them is: cameras. This paper will highlight one of the most important cases where photos are taken in good or bad intentions without the consent of the individual being captured. Any individual has the right to privacy in his personal life, this means he has the right to control who will have the right to capture his photo and who has the right to use it in the future. The Jordanian law accepts the person's right to privacy. This paper will tackle the subject matter and how does the Jordanian law covers this issue. Keywords: Civil Liability, Privacy, Photography, Consent, Breach.Student's NameInstitutional AffiliationThe Civil Liability of Street Shooting and Photography for Breach of Privacy Under Jordanian LawIntroduction

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The world is experiencing a fast-technological change in all aspects. The current generation is referred to as the first digital generation. Technology has brought massive growth and changes in the past half-decade, with more advanced tools, equipment, medication, or machines meant to improve life quality or make living simpler, as it is commonly referred. However, technology has dragged along several disasters, such as advanced weapons, employment crisis, child abuse, sophisticated crimes, and social disconnect, among many more. Also, technology has introduced gray areas in law and defining what is right or wrong. Among such cases where there lies a confusing issue in the Jordanian law is street shooting and photography and breach of the privacy law.

Photography has benefited massively from technological advancement. Currently, there are people benefiting millions from photography, either as photographers, photo editors, or running online galleries. There are photos earning millions of monies due to different reasons such as the items or people photographed, what they portray, or the moment they represent. Photography is a course offered in most schools at any stage of the study. Different types of cameras with the most advanced technology have been innovated, with companies such as Niko, Canon, and Sony making billions of dollars in profit. Phone cameras have also increasingly improved. The most prominent companies in the industry competing to produce the best phone cameras, given it is one of the qualities most customers want. Recently, small hidden cameras had become readily accessible on the market, with affordable prices, unlike about five years ago when they were very expensive. Almost everyone with a smartphone tries to capture "the moment" whenever a situation arises.

With all the cameras' advancement, street shooting and photography has become a regular practice done by both photographers and civilians. With photographers, taking pictures is their job, while civilians only take pictures to capture the right moment, therefore only on special occasions. Most people taking street pictures do it with the right intentions. However, in some cases, especially when the photograph is taken without permission, legality questions arise. Pictures such the "upskirt photos," which is non-consensual images of women's underskirt, are a clear breach of privacy, yet attract millions of viewers. There are hundreds of websites buying, selling, or posting such pictures and benefiting from illegally obtained photos. With no clear law defending the civilians of street shootings and photography in public places, the practice will continue affecting innocent people from all possible angles.

Problem of the Study

Street shooting and photography can have devastating consequences on civilians. Photos such as upskirt, crime scenes, individuals in war, or shock, which are taken with the wrong or right intention, would expose one to many negative possibilities related to sharing photos online. Even while taking a photo for acceptable reasons, they can eventually have an everlasting effect on an individual. In some cases, one can find heated discussions about their pictures that they did not know exists. When these talks are harmful, such as body shaming and cyberbullying, one can get adverse psychological problems, that would take a lifetime to heal. Therefore, there should be existing laws to protect the general public from such situations.

However, currently, there are no clear laws directly making street shooting and photography illegal, even when the photos may have an everlasting negative impact on one's life. In most cases, the law protects the photographer, under Law No. 8 of 1998 (Press and Publication Law of 1998) and Article 26 of Law on the Protection of Copyright where original artwork, which includes photographs, has legal protection. Having said that, both previous laws had set out some limits when it comes to the breach of personal life . Furthermore, the civil labiality within One of the laws that can be interpreted to protect people against street shooting and photography is the Jordanian Ccivil liability law, Civil Code, Law No. 43 of 1976. will help in protecting the privacy of personal life from being breached by photography actions.

Importance of the Study

Given the importance of the topic due to the impacts it could pose on an individual's life, the study is meant to benefit people in several ways. One of the major significances of the study is identifying the fact that street shooting and photography endangers innocent civilians' life. Many people have found themselves in a position where their photos are taken without their consent, only for them to feel offended, but not realizing it's a growing problem affecting millions around the world. For the photographers taking pictures of people on the streets, not understanding the adverse effects they pose on civilians, they will learn that the act is harmful and hopefully stop. Also, it will sensitize the public on why they should avoid taking pictures of strangers in public places.

Identifying the problem will help make the general public and the authorities on the need to have a clear law that protects everyone against street shooting and photography. The constitution law needs to evolve with time as the world faces new problems that were previously unknown. With a clear law defining the legality of the act, many people involved will refrain from taking unpermitted photos, while those caught will face the full force of the constitution accordingly.

Finally, the study will educate readers on the presence of a law that can be interpreted to protect them from street shooting and photography. Since the law does not directly relate to street photography, most civilians might not understand how civil liability law protects them from the issue. With the knowledge that the law protects one from unpermitted street photography, one can have the confidence to report incidences to the right authority. Thus, the study will help civilians solve these issues where, in most cases, they go unreported.

Objectives of the Study

General objective. The research is meant to identify how street shooting and photography affect innocent civilians, thus requiring the introduction of a clear law or legal provisions within the current laws that defines the act as illegal, and explaining how the civil liability law, Civil Code, Law No. 43 of 1976, can be interpreted to criminalize the issue..

Specific objectives

• To identify street shooting and photography as a problem affecting many civilians and explain the dangers .Explain dangersof street shooting and photography poses to innocent civilians in public places.
• Explain why the problem of street shooting and photography is a breach of the right to privacy.
• Identifying the need for a clear law defining street shooting and photography as an illegal activity with set consequences.
• Identify how and why street shooting and photography can be interpreted under civil liability law.
• Identify why street shooting photographers are liable for harm caused by the photos they take.
• To raise the alarm about the problem, thus, creating a room for further research on the issue.

Methodology

The research will use a qualitative methodology where a variety of methods to obtain data will be used. The study will use secondary sources of data from online database such as Jstor, Google Scholar, among other sources regarding Jordanian law on privacy and photography. There will be surveys to determine people's knowledge and what they think about the topic of street shootings photography. The paper will be presented descriptively since the primary goal of the study is to provide exhaustive and comprehensive information regarding street shootings and photography in relation to the law. Research PlanThe research plans to answer the following questions:How are civilians affected by street shooting and photography?How can the problem be solved?What law is in place to counter the problem?Who should help solve the problem?Have there been cases involving the problem, and how were they solved?To answer the research questions, the study will start by considering previous studies related to the topic. Past reviews on the topic will help understand and get familiar with the problem. Previous studies will also help identify gaps in the research topic, thus raising some of the issues that need to be covered in the paper. Next, the research will explain and expound on the right to privacy. The right will be discussed, and its context to the research problem will be defined. Various aspects of photography, such as history, its growth over time, and current trends, will follow next. Ethic issues and problems associated with photography, especially emphasizing on the street shooting and photography will be discussed in detail. The research will then connect the study to civil liability, explaining how the problem's cause, damages, and the link between the cause and injuries. Examples of previous cases involving photography, both in Jordan and other parts of the world will be discussed as evidence of the issue as an existing problem that requires an immediate solution. Finally, a conclusion and recommendation, based on the study will be given. 1.5 Previous Studies

Street photography has faced several controversial studies, where some researchers are against it, while others support it. According to Miles (2015), taking pictures in public places is allowed legally in almost all parts of the world. Therefore, as long as anything, including people, are in the vicinity of a public view, a photographer can take a picture and turn it into a piece of art. Since Henri Cartier-Bresson, a famous twentieth-century, pioneered street photography, some people have openly opposed the act, referring it as a breach of privacy. On the other hand, others argue that since it is done in the street, there is nothing private in public. Street photographers have since been concealing their cameras or identity, walking about and around, waiting for the right moment to capture targets or random moments, or people in a candid posture.

Compared to the twentieth-century, it has become more difficult to spot photographers. During those days, cameras were large and required one to conceal both their equipment and identity. Also, photographers had to stick in one location, since moving with the camera around would reveal their identity and intentions. For example, Cartier-Bresson had to wrap his camera with black tape to hide the shiny parts from people who could notice it. He also had to cover his face with a handkerchief or pretend to be blowing his nose while taking a picture. Due to such types of hustles, there were few street photographers, while those partaking the act rarely had chances to capture many images.

However, Zeronda (2010), expla...