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?

#761

Post by tavavex » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 6:59 PM UTC

haskellshill wrote: post #749

tavavex wrote: post #703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same reason why people are okay being carded, but not okay with submitting their ID digitally to be recorded and retained forever. Meeting people in public has an obvious, logical bound. Being recorded does not. When you pass by someone in public, you're one of a thousand - passers-by see you once and then never again, they don't permanently remember you or what you did, no one but the people who know you ca…

> no one but the people who know you care in the slightest > someone puts up a service that let people upload a picture of your face and have it return a dossier with every bit of video you've ever appeared in Okay and why exactly would anybody be interested in that? Sounds like a pointless hypothetical

> Okay and why exactly would anybody be interested in that? Sounds like a pointless hypothetical

"Okay, so this new attack vector that hasn't existed before will appear, but maybe no one will ever want to use it" isn't a great argument.

I'm not sure how to explain it better that total aggregation of all data that's ever existed on you into one convenient blob is dangerous. Even answering your direct question is trivial: imagine that you break up with someone and they use your public data to stalk you. Or you have a conflict with your relatives, who can then use that data to see where you might be and what you might be up to.

But the obvious further implications of systems like those are second-, third-, fourth-order processing. So, we live in a society where you can look people up by their photos. Up next, the videos they appeared in will be location-tagged, with other services putting two and two together and selling everyone's location data, just put a photo in and you get a convenient timeline. Other services may sell information on what people and groups you were seen associating with. These are all very convenient things to offer - now, police investigations go a lot easier, breaking up inconvenient groups is less troublesome, employers and landlords can screen you for 'undesirable' qualities before ever seeing you. Lots of possibilities, lots of people who would love to use that.

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

#762

Post by escapedmoose » Fri, Oct 03, 2025, 7:05 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…

One alternative is blurring the face of anyone who hasn’t given you permission to broadcast. This has been the accepted standard in Japan for a while.

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

#763

Post by mnbpdx » Sat, Oct 04, 2025, 4:43 AM UTC

haskellshill wrote: post #159

tmm wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Regardless, it's not what humans are used to, culturally, or in our recent human evolution. Lol maybe I don't disagree that it's a lizard thing. But then why would you force a thing on lizards that they don't like?

Even if you're right, and we all just should be comfortable with being seen by the internet when we're in any semi-public space, you can't expect human brains and culture to change on a dime, and you should expect weird effects.

Side note, this is a spectrum, not like a black and white thing. Semi-public is a thing, why not let it still be a thing

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

#764

Post by haskellshill » Sun, Oct 05, 2025, 7:32 PM UTC

pseidemann wrote: post #757

haskellshill wrote: post #747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> used for things I can't even imagine today So why worry about it? It's like worrying a camera will "capture your soul" or whatever the story about those tribesmen is. > a local environment a specific behavior might be normal or accepted while in some other cultures it is not Do you actually have an example of this or is this yet another hypothetical?

> Do you actually have an example of this or is this yet another hypothetical? Some political view in Region A is wildly unaccepted in Region B, thus making them "enemies". See recent conflicts globally.

How's that relevant at all? Are you arguing that it's good to be ignorant of the views in other countries? Should we hide the fact that it's illegal to convert from Islam in Iran, because that might reflect poorly on them?

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

#765

Post by xaoz » Tue, Oct 07, 2025, 8:23 AM UTC

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #133

Genuinely curious: what concrete negative consequences are there from appearing in the background of other people’s photos/videos, in a full face mask no less? Is he afraid that someone will be able to identify him as engaging in a hobby that some people might be judgmental about, e.g. a potential employer finding the footage and concluding “this guy spends lots of time and money playing a children’s game; he’s clear…

The fact that you personally haven't had negative experiences associated with something doesn't mean that other people can't have.

Imagine for example that you were the CEO of a software company having an affair with the head of HR...

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

#766

Post by pseidemann » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 9:22 AM UTC

haskellshill wrote: post #764

pseidemann wrote: post #757

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you actually have an example of this or is this yet another hypothetical? Some political view in Region A is wildly unaccepted in Region B, thus making them "enemies". See recent conflicts globally.

How's that relevant at all? Are you arguing that it's good to be ignorant of the views in other countries? Should we hide the fact that it's illegal to convert from Islam in Iran, because that might reflect poorly on them?

It's relevant e.g. when traveling, when working with international people/companies, or any authority for that matter, which might check your online presence. This is already happening today. People are getting detained for having opinions (both humanist or egocentric) online.

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

#767

Post by daveidol » Wed, Oct 08, 2025, 3:40 PM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #723

daveidol wrote: post #507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Was going to post the same thing. It’s very much a debatable position.

What's even funnier is that this dude demands privacy while he cosplays murdering people with guns in a context where he could easily anonymize himself by wearing a face mask and using a pseudonym which are normal things those people do anyways.

> cosplays murdering people with guns

That's a bit over the top. It's a game, like paintball, Nerf, or Mortal Kombat. Has nothing to do with actual murder.