this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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Privacy
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Here's the problem, it's not doing anything people already couldn't and weren't doing, it's just making it a lot easier and making it more widely available. Honestly it's the exact same issue with "AI", every bad aspect about it was already being done with existing LLMs, they were just the domain of a much smaller subset of people.
It's also manufacturing consent for society to accept being covertly recorded by random people at all times, and potentially for that footage to be posted out of context on the internet with brainrot edits and sound effects mocking people minding their own business because they happened to act a little funny but ultimately harmless in public. It used to be that wearing any kind of hidden camera on your person made you a creep and an asshole period, doubly so if you post any of that footage anywhere, even when it was technically legal. Is it wrong to want it to stay that way? Now you have tech companies not just providing resources to, but actively encouraging that same creep behavior and gas lighting everyone else into thinking they're the problem if they don't like it.
This bothers me too. There are whole sites dedicated to doing that, making fun of people who suffered a medical issue or accident or just did something foolish or awkward. It's even worse now that face recog can dox them.
Over time I think this risks driving the empathy out of society. People are click fodder for streamers, instead of human beings who probably do not want their worst moments recorded for a million strangers to laugh at. Everyone becomes more guarded, more on edge in public places. It is an erosion of the social fabric.
That's literally the point I'm making. In some places it is common place to see streamers broadcasting in public, and I've seen plenty of videos of not as obvious streaming as well. This will continue that trend, and the question is whether we pass laws to change that. The technology only makes it more accessible.
This could be said of so many things.
Yeah that's kinda my point.
But there's often utility in that
Isn't making it a lot easier and more widely available the whole point?
This line of reasoning was already perfectly captured in Office Space: https://youtube.com/watch?v=yZjCQ3T5yXo
That's... not even close to what I'm saying. That's like saying using computers to steal money is illegal therefore using computers is illegal. Someone walking around with a camera is fairly commonplace, the problem is this tech makes it less easy to see and more accessible, which is a problem because of the number of people who would want to use it for something illegal. Remember back when they started making digital cameras which could take pictures silently, which was a big privacy issue? Then they started making mandatory sound effects when a picture was taken.... until they stopped doing that?
They never stopped in Japan
Good point, because of privacy protection laws, exactly the kind of laws we would need to pass to do something about this issue.
How effective is it really? People who want to do that will find a way.
Unfortunately true, there will always be a workaround.