What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world? • Hacker News Board

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#151

Post by op00to » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:41 PM UTC

spacecadet wrote: post #17

This. Im a dick and straight up demand people exclude me or stop filming. Consumers are ravenous for money making content and have no clue what a media business privacy, consent, and compensation legal framework even remotely look like. As someone who produced a few short documentaries in the early 2000s related to "hobbies", I would have never done so without full consent and compensation...

I don’t think you’re a “dick” for politely asking people not to film you, unless you’re unnecessarily aggressive about it.

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#152

Post by Larrikin » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:41 PM UTC

Gigachad wrote: post #51

eterm wrote: post #29

I wonder if it's a generational or cultural difference present in the comments here. I am sympathetic to the author, and I also find video a bit invasive of privacy in a way that photos aren't. I therefore find the (obviously common) attitude that videos are just "something you need to accept" quite alien, but I wonder how much of that attitude is just comments coming from a younger generation that have grown up with…

I’m Gen Z and I get how someone could be annoyed by this, but it’s also just part of life. I get annoyed when people smoke in public or pointlessly honk horns at night. But you have to accept that being around other people means some people do things you aren’t a fan of.

Smoking in public has been banned in a number of large cities around the world and so has honking your horn when there is no threat to life.

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#153

Post by sigwinch » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:41 PM UTC

rs186 wrote: post #94

> well, if you don’t want to be in photos published online, don’t be in public spaces That's the correct answer. End of the story. It is our consensus of what "public space" means and one can do with it (which varies depending on where you are) that forms a lot of our social norms and society. It is why hang drying clothes is acceptable/normal in many parts of the world but not in the US. It is why people are expecte…

Not the end of the story. Photographing where people do not expect strong assurances of privacy is complex to enforce. Try photographing inside a stadium, at the Olympics, etc. Others around you might be photographing, but security might ask you to stop or leave.

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#154

Post by pseidemann » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:42 PM UTC

haskellshill wrote: post #73

tietjens wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this argument is logically flawed. When you say public means not private you are glossing over the fact that public never before meant "available via digital media to the world." Instead it mean a public which had a localized context. Doesn't mean you are wrong, but you're paving over this obvious fact.

But what practical difference does it have that it's "available via digital media to the world."? Are you just opposed to people not in your physical location seeing you? Why?

There are a number of reasons, including:

- I see who sees me, a digital copy breaks this symmetry

- Recordings may be stored indefinitely, searched through, used for things I can't even imagine today

- In a local environment a specific behavior might be normal or accepted while in some other cultures it is not. This conflict is bound to happen

etc.

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#155

Post by Forgeties79 » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:42 PM UTC

maxehmookau wrote: post #67

mapontosevenths wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> societal pressure to behave like a grown-up. I think this is the key. It might be legal, but it's not polite. It's a bit like blasting crappy music from your phone on the bus without headphones. Grown ups should know better.

> It might be legal, but it's not polite. Too many folks forget this. Do what you want, but I'll tell you if I don't like it. Others might too. They're not infringing on your rights, but it might make you a little uncomfortable.

People like the guy I encountered are basically allergic to discomfort of any kind. Even the slightest inconvenience in their lives is seen as an incredibly personal and intolerable affront to their liberty, and they want to make damn sure we all know about it at every possible opportunity! Hence the behavior.

If I were to compare it to a client relationship, it’s the kind of person who throws the contract in a partner’s/client’s/vendor’s face anytime there is a minor disagreement or discussion about details. Reasonable people know you only start pointing to the contract when things escalate to a certain point as it locks everybody into a defensive posture and now everybody is going to be rigid moving forward.

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#156

Post by alex77456 » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:42 PM UTC

jen729w wrote: post #11

I get it, but the alternative is what? Get model release forms from anyone in a public space every time you turn your video camera on? Who's to say how much of you I have in the shot? Do you feature? Did you flash by? Are you blurred? Recognisable? I was shooting video of a car park exit last year. (I was trying to prove to the shopping centre owners that it was dangerous.) Mundane footage. Some lady drives out in he…

Part of the issue is, big portion of the footage being recorded, is not worth recording, let alone publishing. (Except for personal value of the person recording, but that doesn't require public sharing)

With the OP example, people getting recorded are not bystanders catching stray camera focus, they are the subject of the video. Without other participants, there would be little 'content'. Imagine going to an indoor climbing venue, recording someone else, and publishing just that.

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#157

Post by haskellshill » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:42 PM UTC

nemomarx wrote: post #123

haskellshill wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what practical difference does it have that it's "available via digital media to the world."? Are you just opposed to people not in your physical location seeing you? Why?

There's a clear difference in scale between "people who also go to a private airsoft meetup with me will see me" and "the entire global population can see me", right?

Okay, and? There's a difference between one person seeing me in public and two, but no meaningful difference

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#158

Post by haskellshill » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:43 PM UTC

tietjens wrote: post #117

haskellshill wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what practical difference does it have that it's "available via digital media to the world."? Are you just opposed to people not in your physical location seeing you? Why?

I feel that there is a difference between being in the public sphere of the community one exists in, and being in a public sphere that is global and free of any context. Lots of questions pop up when I try to follow that line of thought.

Questions such as?

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#159

Post by haskellshill » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:43 PM UTC

tmm wrote: post #142

haskellshill wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what practical difference does it have that it's "available via digital media to the world."? Are you just opposed to people not in your physical location seeing you? Why?

The difference is being seen in public is ephemeral and being recorded in public is eternal. In the former, your actions exist in fallible human memories for a short while at most; in the latter there is a permanent digital record of you, geotagged and time stamped and available for perfect recall forever.

And that's bad because?

Re: What if I don't want videos of my hobby time available to the world?

#160

Post by RajT88 » Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 12:43 PM UTC

siva7 wrote: post #69

spicyusername wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My kids are in elementary and middle school and there was an occasion where they were at a birthday party where an older sibling was live streaming the event. Both my kids (and me) found it very off-putting, so there's some anecdata that at least some young kids still feel it's an invasion of privacy. Maybe not all is lost.

There are lots of young people who have some conception and respect of privacy and there are people who haven't. That's not a generational thing.. It's just that those without awareness of boundaries have now all the tech that screams in their face to stream everything to the world without consent. I can assure you that still lots of young folks are annoyed by those people.

Agree. I went to a family gathering recently, and my wife's cousin was walking around live streaming. People were pissed once they figured out that private conversations were uploading live to the internet.

The same guy did similar when his mom was on her death bed. Jesus Christ.