The phenomenon of clandestine photography in various places has occurred frequently, seriously infringing on the rights and interests of others
How to rectify unscrupulous candid photography?
Editor's note
Recently, a number of secret photography incidents have occurred in various places, causing heated discussions among netizens. For example, on August 8, Ms. Wang of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, discovered that a man was secretly photographed in the women's toilet, shouted for colleagues to twist the man to the police station, and the man was sentenced to 17 days of administrative detention; On August 8, in the Shanghai subway, a man squatted and secretly photographed the thigh of the woman opposite.
Secretly photographing privacy, seriously infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of others, is illegal or even criminal, and the public hates secretly photographed. However, why are candid photos keep banning? Is secretly filming just to satisfy personal "bad taste", or is it a worse ulterior purpose?
Starting from today, the Jingwei edition of the rule of law will launch a series of reports on "Governing Clandestine Photography in accordance with the Law", exploring the legal path of controlling clandestine photography from the aspects of cracking down on clandestine photography in accordance with the law, cutting off the black and gray industry chain of clandestine photos, and rectifying the illegal trading of clandestine photography equipment.
□ reporter Han Dandong
When exiting the subway entrance, Ms. Zhong felt a little strange behind her back, and her leg was touched. When she looked back, she saw a shocking scene - someone was taking a picture of her skirt with a mobile phone camera, and her hand was still tapping the screen.
This is the scene that happened in Chongqing in May this year. Ms. Zhong threw the man to the ground with all her strength, but he quickly broke free, and by the time she came back to her senses, the man had run away without a trace. Ms. Zhong recalled to the "Rule of Law Daily" reporter: When she went to check the subway monitoring, she found that when she took the three escalators, the person had been following her closely.
Ms. He Zhong was alone. In recent years, in subways, toilets, hotel rooms and even residents' homes, clandestine photography incidents have occurred from time to time and have always been a hot topic of public discussion.
In the face of clandestine photography, how should people defend their rights? And how to combat the behavior of clandestine photography? With these questions in mind, the reporter conducted investigative interviews.
Incidents of candid photography occur repeatedly
Leave a shadow over the victim
Recently, at Dongxiayuan Station of Beijing Metro Line 6, Xiao Zhao, a man in black, saw that the man in white Xu secretly photographed, decisively shot and knocked him down. In the process, in order to destroy the evidence, Xu broke off his mobile phone. Later, after police interrogation, Xu admitted that he secretly photographed women, and had also taken secret photos when riding buses and subways before. Xu was detained by the police for violating privacy.
The reporter combed through the cases of clandestine photography exposed in recent years and found that densely populated places such as subways and buses have become high incidence places for clandestine photography.
Not long ago, when Ms. Zhang from Jiangsu was riding the escalator at the railway passenger station, she was reminded by her son that someone secretly photographed the bottom of her skirt. The monitoring showed that the man had reached out to the bottom of his skirt. The police investigation found that his mobile phone contained a large number of videos and photos that secretly took other people's privacy in different locations. Faced with the evidence, the man had to admit to secretly taking pictures and was finally detained for 5 days.
Ms. Chen, who works in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, recalled to reporters a secret photo incident she experienced this year: while riding home on the subway, she accidentally glimpsed a man with his right leg on his left leg, and his mobile phone hidden between his legs and using the zoom function to secretly photograph the short skirts of the two girls opposite. Ms. Chen immediately stepped forward to inform the two girls of the situation, and the three together asked the man to delete the photo.
"At first, the man pretended not to know anything, and seeing our tough attitude, he opened his phone and deleted the photo." Ms. Chen said, "My hands and feet were shaking after doing this, and I was afraid that the man would overreact or follow me, so I quickly got out of the car." ”
A number of victims who were secretly photographed in public places told reporters that secretly photographed themselves left a lot of psychological shadows. One interviewee said that he did not dare to take the subway for a long time after being secretly photographed, and even in crowded places, he would inexplicably break out in a cold sweat, "I am afraid when others lift their mobile phones, and I always feel that someone is secretly taking pictures."
Not only in crowded public places, but also in some private places such as hotel rooms, toilets, and even bedrooms at home have repeatedly occurred secretly photographed, which makes people unpreventable and scalp numb.
Ms. Li from Tianjin told reporters that some time ago, she checked into a hotel, turned off the lights and rested, found a small red dot flashing in the power socket under the TV, and upon closer inspection, she found that there was a camera working inside. This matter has become a "heart disease" for Ms. Li, and from now on, when staying in a hotel, she will carefully check it inside and out.
Some hotel rooms have cameras, which doesn't seem to be new. Mr. Liu, from Zhumadian, Henan Province, recalled that when he stayed at a hotel earlier this year, when he connected to the WiFi in his room, he used a test app to detect that there were multiple devices connected to the WiFi. Mr. Liu called the hotel staff to check and eventually found a pinhole camera in the set-top box.
Even more frightening was the sudden emergence of a camera from the bottom gap of the adjacent toilet. Not long ago, Ms. Zhang from Changsha, Hunan Province, encountered such a thing when she was using the toilet on the first floor of the office building, she shouted in panic, and the person immediately retracted the mobile phone and left the bathroom.
After that, Ms. Zhang, accompanied by her colleagues, called the police, and went to the monitoring room of the office building to check the monitoring, and found the man involved through the monitoring. But when the police came to the door, the evidence in the man's mobile phone had been removed.
Serious infringement of clandestine photography
Fix evidence to protect rights in accordance with law
Secretly photographing seriously infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of others. Qin Ketian, deputy director of Yingke (Changzhou) Information Network and High-tech Legal Affairs Department, told reporters that clandestine photography generally has three characteristics: illegal invasion of privacy, improper purpose and unauthorized behavior. According to the provisions of the Civil Code, clandestine photography seriously infringes on citizens' portrait rights and privacy, and may further constitute sexual harassment or picking quarrels and provoking trouble.
"Using pinhole cameras, mobile phones and other modern electronic devices, without the knowledge of the parties, taking or recording some private footage is a serious infringement of the rights of others, and corresponding legal responsibilities need to be borne by the parties." Zhang Yanxia, a senior partner at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, said that filming without the consent of the other party is illegal, and even if it is not posted on the Internet, it has violated the victim's right to tranquility and privacy. If you secretly photograph other people's sensitive and private parts, you are suspected of violating the Public Security Administration Punishment Law or even the Criminal Law.
Zhang Yanxia said that after the implementation of the Civil Code, more detailed provisions have been made on personality rights such as privacy, portrait rights, and reputation rights, and no longer distinguish whether the purpose of the photographer is profit, as long as it is illegal without the consent of the other party.
So, what should I do if I encounter or suspect that I have been secretly photographed? Some respondents asked: Can the other party be asked to hand over the mobile phone or even forcibly take away the mobile phone to delete photos?
In this regard, Zhu Xiaofeng, a professor at the Law School of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that even if a natural person believes that the other party has violated his privacy and portrait rights, he cannot ask the other party to hand over the mobile phone or forcibly take away the mobile phone to delete the photo, because the mobile phone is also a personal item, and the photos in the mobile phone are also privacy.
"Under the premise of ensuring our own safety, we must dare to protect our own rights and interests. First, the perpetrator can be asked to stop filming and delete the corresponding content. If the circumstances are serious, you can file a lawsuit in court to claim civil tort liability. If the filming behavior has caused social order or public order disorder, the public security department can deal with the person who took the photo. Zhu Xiaofeng said.
Rao Wei, a senior partner at Beijing Tiantai Law Firm, believes that those who have been secretly photographed should promptly retain relevant evidence and report the case to the public security organs. If losses are caused, compensation may be claimed through civil litigation.
When it comes to punishing clandestine photography, Liu Dong, director of the Intelligence Command Center of the Wei County Public Security Bureau in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, said that the biggest difficulty at present is to fix evidence, and once the clandestine photographer deletes the photo, the existing technical means are often difficult to recover. While physical evidence is difficult to fix, human evidence is also a difficult problem, and more passers-by with a sense of justice are needed to come forward and testify.
"If you find that you have been secretly photographed in a private place such as a hotel room, dressing room, bedroom, etc., you should promptly report to the police to protect your privacy, and at the same time collect evidence of being secretly photographed as much as possible for subsequent rights protection." Qin Ketian said.
"Operators and managers of hotels and other places involving personal privacy should fulfill their management responsibilities, regularly arrange professional and technical personnel to carry out inspections, and promptly eliminate 'secret photography artifacts' in all corners to ensure that the privacy of the masses is not violated." Xing Hongfei, a police officer from the network security detachment of the Xiangyang City Public Security Bureau in Hubei Province, said.
Improve legislation and strengthen supervision
Curb the production and sale of clandestine photography equipment
How to rectify the chaos of candid photography? It has become a major problem of social concern.
A number of interviewees proposed that in view of the situation that the privacy of clandestine photography mostly occurs in buses, subways, hotels and other places, and the evidence of clandestine photography is not easy to fix, the supervision of places should be further strengthened, and police posts should be increased in buses, subways and other places, or relevant training for subway staff should be done to promptly discover and deal with clandestine photography; Strengthen the management responsibility of hotels, and restrict the operation of hotels that allow clandestine photography. At the same time, increase the punishment of those who take secret photos.
According to Gao Yandong, deputy dean of the Institute of Digital Rule of Law of Zhejiang University, it is necessary to further improve laws and regulations to control the chaos of clandestine photography. In China's judicial practice, it is difficult to have corresponding crimes for clandestine photography to be regulated and punished by criminal law, and the low cost of crime has led to frequent occurrence of clandestine photography. Therefore, he suggested that the crime of invasion of privacy be established, severely punish those who repeatedly fail to change or cause serious consequences, and better protect the tranquility of public life.
"The traditional crime of protecting the right to reputation and sexual association is difficult to crack down on the frequent acts of clandestine photography such as subways and toilets. Therefore, the addition of the crime of invasion of privacy in our country is the need of the development of the times. Gao Yandong said that at the same time, attention should also be paid to the modesty of criminal law, setting "multiple times or to multiple people" as the threshold for criminalization, and only public security punishment is required for occasional secretly filming, forming a ladder of legal responsibility.
In the investigation, the reporter found that the privacy of secretly photographed has formed a gray industrial chain, and secretly photographed has not only become the "bad taste" of individual people, but also many secretly taken videos and photos have been shared and sold in cyberspace, and are watched by onlookers; Some candid camera equipment is also sold online, and some people provide "technical services" for modifying candid camera equipment.
The interviewed experts proposed that to rectify the chaos of secret photography, it is necessary to cut off the underground industrial chain of secret photography. It is necessary not only to severely punish those who take secret photos, but also to control "onlookers" in accordance with laws and regulations.
With the development of science and technology, all kinds of items modified from pinhole cameras are inexpensive, and show the characteristics of "everything can be modified", "good concealment" and "remote real-time viewing by mobile phone connection", making prevention more difficult.
Xing Hongfei said that the production and sale of clandestine camera equipment contains huge profits, and the regulatory authorities should strengthen supervision and law enforcement, actively assume responsibility, strictly inspect and strictly supervise manufacturers that produce and sell "clandestine cameras", and curb the production and sales of "clandestine photographic artifacts" from the source, so as to plug loopholes. Law enforcement departments should strictly enforce the law and increase the intensity of cracking down on the illegal production and sale of clandestine photographing equipment in accordance with law.
In response to the online sale of secretly taken videos and photos, experts proposed that not only should this behavior be cracked down on in accordance with the law, but also relevant online platforms should actively perform their obligations as entities, strengthen supervision, set up sensitive word systems, promptly discover and close social groups or forums involving such content, promptly report and deal with illegal phenomena, and jointly purify cyberspace.
Xing Hongfei also proposed: "For the people on the consumer side and the demand side of secretly photographing, we should also increase the crackdown and punishment, for example, even if it is only a paid click to watch, we must increase their onlooker 'cost', and adopt methods such as entering relevant 'blacklists' and restricting Internet access, so that the demand side can also be punished." (Rule of Law Daily)