Korean Smartphones Have Mandatory Shutter Sounds, 8 in 10 Want It Muted

> South Korea has a problem with unwanted, clandestine photography relating to upskirting and when mobile phones were introduced, authorities moved to stop perverts from taking photos of people without permission.

1. My mind is blown that this oddly specific behaviour was apparently so common that the government mandated all cellphone cameras must play shutter sounds that cannot be muted. What the hell?

2. Do third-party camera apps also trigger the shutter sound? What about recording a video? If not, doesn't this law just push pervs to snap video instead of still shots while unnecessarily degrading user experience across society?

Re: Korean Smartphones Have Mandatory Shutter Sounds, 8 in 10 Want It Muted

#7

Post by pwg » Sat, Nov 25, 2023, 6:44 PM UTC

zazazache wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Ublock origin - default settings (in the "I'm an advanced user" mode) to block all javascript. I saw no cookie consent banner while reading the first part of the article.

Re: Korean Smartphones Have Mandatory Shutter Sounds, 8 in 10 Want It Muted

#8

Post by fbdab103 » Sat, Nov 25, 2023, 6:49 PM UTC

tromp wrote: post #5

> Japan and South Korea are among the only countries in the world This "among the only" strikes me as a miscarriage of semantics... If there are others (presumably very few) then please list them too.

Presumably a catch-all to avoid having to do research and/or missing an entry.

Re: Korean Smartphones Have Mandatory Shutter Sounds, 8 in 10 Want It Muted

#9

Post by gruez » Sat, Nov 25, 2023, 6:52 PM UTC

underseacables wrote: post #2

Could this not be removed on an Android phone, or is Android in SK locked down to prevent this?

At the very least it can be removed by physically disabling the speakers. So any software measure (eg. locked bootloaders) isn't really worth enforcing too hard.

Re: Korean Smartphones Have Mandatory Shutter Sounds, 8 in 10 Want It Muted

#10

Post by gruez » Sat, Nov 25, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

EForEndeavour wrote: post #6

> South Korea has a problem with unwanted, clandestine photography relating to upskirting and when mobile phones were introduced, authorities moved to stop perverts from taking photos of people without permission. 1. My mind is blown that this oddly specific behaviour was apparently so common that the government mandated all cellphone cameras must play shutter sounds that cannot be muted. What the hell? 2. Do third-p…

>1. My mind is blown that this oddly specific behaviour was apparently so common that the government mandated all cellphone cameras must play shutter sounds that cannot be muted. What the hell?

You're missing the other possibility: incompetent politicians writing bad polices to respond to the latest moral panic. Plane hijackings are pretty rare, yet we have TSA screening and no liquids over 100ml on flights.