12-05-2003, 06:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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New Phones Raise Privacy Fears
"You've just flipped the bird at a driver who splashed you with mud. A rude moment soon forgotten by anyone who saw it, right? Maybe not, if one of those witnesses has a cell phone with a digital camera. Long a staple overseas, "cam phones" arrived here in 2002, promising sleek and cheap--under $100--fun with a voyeuristic twist. And they're taking off: 7 million of 72 million cell phones shipped in the U.S. have cameras; by 2007, 51 million out of over 110 million will have them, predicts research firm IDC.
The same size as regular cell phones, cam phones can snap photos while users appear to make calls. Candid shots can be e-mailed to friends or sent to sites that have automated "moblogging" (mobile blogging) such as Buzznet.com, Fotolog.net, and Textamerica.com, and there viewed worldwide in seconds. That means every faux pas, and even more private moments (in locker rooms or store dressing areas, say), can become fodder for public consumption."
So, what do you think? Are camera phones more trouble that they're worth, or do they represent a truly useful digital tool? Never having had a phone with a camera built in, I'm sitting in the middle on this one. I can see the potential for abuse, but that doesn't invalidate the usefulness of a technology - people can get addicted to online gambling, but that doesn't mean that Internet access is an evil thing.
One of the things I believe will start to happen is that phone makers will have to start offering two otherwise identical models: one with a camera, and one without. There are too many instances and companies that are banning camera phones, and a phone OEM doesn't want to shut off sales to a whole segment of the market.
What do you think about camera phones?
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