Photography of shoplifter....legalities?

Bellepatience

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I had a question that I haven't been able to find anywhere on the Internet. It's kind of a unique situation. Maybe someone on here might have some insight.There's this clothing store that has a security guard on staff and he has his private cell phone; he takes pictures of customers... omes that he thinnks may be a theif. Then uses those for photographs that he has saved on his personal phone to see if customers have changed their clothes or anything like that and what I was wondering if it's legal for him to do that with his private phone if he if there's no actual law being broken at the time it's just stereotyping? I would assume that it would be one thing if its a security system implemented within the business with proper sinage, but another to use a personal cell phone. Any ideas?
 
Generally speaking, in most western countries you have no resonable expectation of privacy if you are in public and in most cases you only need permission from the subject if you are going to use the photo commercially (like in advertising).

Of course different countries have different laws, so it will depend on whatever area you are in, how they've written the law and if it could be viewed as another offence (like stalking or harassment).

So while it may not be comfortable having your photo taken in this way it does not sound to me like he is breaking the law from what you describe. You would probably have to check with a lawyer in your particular area to be certain though.

I would suggest writing to the store to tell them it makes you feel uncomfortable and stop shopping there.

PS I am not a lawyer, just a dude who likes photography.
 
All stores with any sense have video security running all the time. It makes no difference that the cellphone camera is the personal property of the guard. The only problem would be if the guard was using the camera inappropriately like in a changing room or up-skirt or something like that.
 
It seems odd for a security guard to be using a cell phone to take photos of customers instead of the store using security cameras. I'm not sure how you would know it was his personal cell, but I don't know why a store would issue a cell phone to an employee for this purpose.

Stores may have signs posted with their policy on taking pictures in the store, which would be intended for customers. I don't know what the store's policies are for their employees.

This may not be illegal but it seems like an inappropriate way to provide security for the store, particularly using a personal cell phone. If it's a concern you could contact the store manager, or if it's a chain store see if you can find their headquarters and contact them. Maybe consider contacting the police as well; if the store is having so many thefts that they've resorted to doing this then maybe the police could patrol the area more frequently or offer other support (suggestions on how to better prevent theft).
 
I have experience in security and security cameras don't have full coverage of any store. Having a handheld camera, like one in a cellphone, that's not obvious, is a good adjunct to fixed cameras.
 

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