Privacy of a vandal
Video of a young man vandalizing a newly set up ticket validation touch screen thingy is a new hit on social networks in Belgrade today, and it has just caught the attention of media. Belgrade’s biggest local media station, Studio B managed to find out that the incident happened a week ago and that the police are most likely already in pursuit.
Some interesting question arise, though.
How did this video got to the internet in the first place? It first showed up on the message board Beobuild, then got removed from the file-sharing site, but not before it got picked up by Laki, who then posted it to Vimeo. In a matter of minutes it was all over twitter, facebook and youtube before ending up in mainstream media. But what does the law say about the newly installed CCTV in public transportation? Who is responsible if something like this leaks out?
It’s the other question that interests me more – should the vandals such as this one be exposed to the public scrutiny or do they also deserve some privacy? The Internet hive mind works pretty fast – the guy form the video was almost instantly recognized by one viewer in one of numerous comments on youtube, giving away his workplace. Does this speed up police work?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
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Da, i vandal ima pravo na privatnost. Disciplinska odgovornost za onoga ko je pustio video, prekrsajna za vandala. Problem i za jedno i za drugo je sto zivimo u zemlji kontrolisanog haosa. Za prvo nema sanse, za drugo, tesko ako ima ledja ili novac. Bez obzira na neefikasnost sistema, ne mislim da je dobro praviti precice tako sto ce se krsiti necija prava.
Those who choose to use Public Transport know they are being filmed, so already you hand in part of your privacy voluntarily. The publishing of the recordings with faces of the people (hopefully) contributes to less criminal behavior, so I do think this is allowed; it serves a bigger goal.
On the other hand, I am a bit afraid that the monkey that destroyed the busplus-machine will be regarded as a hero by many too, and in this way it will only motivate others to do the same. Only next time they will first destroy the camera as well…
As a punishment they should let the monkey work as a ticket-inspector for a month!
Although publishing such video might help to find the vandal, none of us entering public transport signed off our privacy.
The only way such video, or parts of which that could help identify him, should be offered to the public is through adequate legal procedure – either allow some big shot in the police to make that decision or investigative judge (do we have those?!)...
Thanks for representing the trees. Trees are great teachers of patience and acceptance.I am so greatfull for trees because of the way they demonstrate generosity and unconditional loving by constantly transmitting sunlight energy into clean air for all animals to breathe , and purify the water for us to drink.
Vandali, kreteni bez obzira na nacionalnost…