Popular mini-cameras spark privacy concerns
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Global Times, June 30, 2011
Tiny video cameras sold at Zhongguancun, Haidian district, recently have raised privacy concerns over how the devices might be used.
"The mini-video cameras that look like buttons and electronic car keys have sold very well in the last few weeks," a vendor at the Hailong Building said on Wednesday.
Market managers have been checking for the cameras after it was reported they could be used illicitly, she said, but she still had some. She then took out a pen camera and pen voice recorder.
"It's convenient and easy to hide these to record meetings or business," she said.
Another vendor on the second floor of the Hailong Building showed a small camera that records high-definition video.
"It can shoot for at least three hours," the vendor said.
However, many of these products are not licensed, according to the Beijing News.
"If the cameras are not licensed, it's forbidden to sell them. The users can be charged with legal responsibility if they spread the films or pictures to websites or elsewhere," lawyer Zhang Zhiqiang with the Beijing Yixing Law Firm told the Global Times.
A resident surnamed Yang told the Beijing News that she had seen one of the car-key cameras in a KTV bathroom, and others have expressed concerns about privacy invasion.
The Beijing News also reported that an insider told the paper that the mini-cameras could be used in subways, shopping malls, schools, bathrooms or hotels, and that some people may sell the videos to pornographic websites.
"It's very possible that some people might buy the mini-cameras to provide pornographic videos or pictures to websites," IT industry commentator Jia Jinghua told the Global Times on Wednesday.
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