[packetlost]

Public university labs are generally public as they're state property (in this particular case, UW Madison is a public state University). Further, recording video or pictures of people in public places is broadly legal in the US. There are only "presumption of privacy" restrictions which apply to places such as bathrooms and private property that is not visible from a public location (ex. a sidewalk).

Obv. IANAL and this is not legal advice.

[almostgotcaught]

By this logic the dorm room bathrooms at public universities are also public and I should be able to setup cameras /s

[ozzmotik]

just for the sake of conversation…

if you did, where would you have set them up at anyway? Asking for a friend