January 14, 2003
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:Another Reason Not to Go to the Gym
One doesn't even want to imagine the incident that gave rise to this change in policy:
Physical, which operates nine gyms in the former British colony, recently posted signs in its Hong Kong facilities forbidding the use of mobile phones in locker rooms.Whodathunkit. Having a picture of yourself toweling down your own naked body at the health club isn't "good for your privacy.""It's just some areas that are restricted for mobile phones," said Physical spokeswoman Miran Chan.
"Some of these phones can be used as cameras. If someone uses a phone this way and takes a photo and puts it on the Internet, it's not very good for our members and their privacy."
It seems bit indirect, though. Are cameras banned?
Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at January 14, 2003 04:12 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksIt is not just another reason not to work out, it is another reason to hate cell phones.
Posted by: Chris on January 14, 2003 06:43 PMIt's not that people will be taking pictures of themselves; instead, they're probably worried about someone taking pictures of other members without their knowledge and permission. There was a case a few years back about someone who had installed a hidden camera in a locker room for a bunch of college wrestling teams, and as I recall, put them up on a website as something like "Hot Jock Voyeur Pictures". It could be entirely too easy for someone to do that with a mobile phone that had picture capability, I'd imagine.
Posted by: Michael on January 14, 2003 07:40 PMSome people have been augmenting their personal porno collection. Similiar to those guys who wander around with a spycam in their shoe to take upskirt shots. Pure class.
Posted by: Toxic on January 14, 2003 09:01 PMMichael - perhaps my syntax was tortured, but I assumed the incident leading up to this was precisely what you describe. The "yourself" refers to health club members suffering an event "not good for their privacy", not necessarily the camera-phone operators at whose hands their privacy is compromised.
Posted by: "Mindles H. Dreck" on January 15, 2003 08:09 AMThis isn't the only place where these phones are turning out to be a problem. Here is an example of the problem from Japan.
Posted by: Aubrey Turner on January 15, 2003 01:44 PMYes, cameras are banned in that gym (or at least locker rooms) and have been banned for a while. The issue is not banning cell phones and nothing else, but of adding camera-capable cell phones to the list of things that are banned because they are cameras. The article is pretty clear about this (unless you found the same article I read but with a different spin, in which case, be assured it's in there)
Posted by: beth on January 16, 2003 09:55 PMComments are Closed.