Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by CogitoCogito 2497 days ago
You're referencing old ideas of public and private life that made sense at a time. Those ideas did not form in a time with ubiquitous surveillance. The ideas may have made sense before in their historical context, but that doesn't mean they make sense today.

How about instead you ask yourself why those ideas grew out of that older historical context and whether the same reasoning would apply today? Why not re-read this and think about what germanier means:

> Only people physically there can see me and what I am doing. Modern technology enables them to record that and share it globally and across time. It's important to recognize that this ability is not inherent in it being a public place.

[ Quote from here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20713153 ]

1 comments

This is not an old idea. This is common sense: how can you expect privacy in a public place?

Taking pictures of someone specifically may be different because that may be harassment.

But in general ending up in pictures and films of others because you were in a public space fits in the standard concept of what a public space is.

Imagine you are taking a walk in the forest. The forest is a public place (where I live anyway!) – anyone can walk anywhere they want. Eventually, later in the day, you might need to take a leak, so you do what everyone normally does – go behind a tree.

Do you in this situation expect to be photographed and have high-resolution pictures of your genitals posted to Instagram? Don't you think this, if it were a regular occurrence, would interfere with people's age-old custom of enjoying a quiet walk in the public forest?