Topic: Weather Cameras - Privacy issues

[jvella]

Hi all.  First time poster so please be gentle.  I have a question regarding privacy issues in regard to streaming live video for a weather station I've just set up.

I'm using an Axis camera and streaming to youtube live. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=672ruEMa660&feature=youtu.be

I gave up trying to FTP the camera to my wunderground site, trying the URL method (fingers crossed).  upload to windy.com was so easy in comparison

The issue I have is that the camera points out over farmland which I was originally showing.  Somehow the farmer found out and voiced his concerns about privacy issues. I moved the camera angle up until he was happy.   Ive seen a lot of live webcams that show roads, carparks, farmland etc. 

Just wondering what peoples take is on this issue.  Obviously different states/territories/countries have different laws regarding this.  We are located in Victoria, Australia

[sky_watcher]

The issue I have is that the camera points out over farmland which I was originally showing.  Somehow the farmer found out and voiced his concerns about privacy issues. I moved the camera angle up until he was happy.   Ive seen a lot of live webcams that show roads, carparks, farmland etc. 

Just wondering what peoples take is on this issue.  Obviously different states/territories/countries have different laws regarding this.  We are located in Victoria, Australia

In South Australia, it appears to all come down to whether the activity being recorded is a "private activity" or whether is is associated with a criminal activity like "stalking". So, if the view is publicly visible (and you aren't stalking the farmer), it probably isn't illegal. However, if you were using a telephoto lens to see him discretely peeing against the tyre of his tractor in the distance, it might be, especially if you were putting it up on the Internet.

Obviously, not a legal opinion.

[jvella]

The farmer was concerned if he had to euthanise a cow and someone was watching the live feed. 

I think he overestimates...

1.  The zoom on the camera lens
2.  The amount of people who will be viewing the live feed

[sky_watcher]

The farmer was concerned if he had to euthanise a cow and someone was watching the live feed. 
 think he overestimates...

1.  The zoom on the camera lens
2.  The amount of people who will be viewing the live feed

Farmers are. by their nature, usually pretty conservative. I'm sure that at some stage they will have had "visits" from Animal Liberation or similar, so I'm not surprised by his concern, even if the probability of an animal kill being seen by anyone is vanishingly small. If it did happen it would sure to be by a cherub-faced child proficient at posting to Facebook and the ancient, easily-upset granny.

Someone must having been watching it to be in a position to tell him.

[ConligWX]

Lets just hope no one steals his cattle heard and the farmer then comes to you to find out who done it.  "oh sorry you told me not to video your land"

[gwwilk]

I experienced a different issue with my 'StreetView' camera a couple of years ago.  The neighbor across the street was concerned that the live view available on the internet could allow miscreants to monitor his comings and goings, thereby rendering him vulnerable to burglary when he was not home.  This is a very remote possibility, but he was unrelenting in his insistence that the live video and every-minute photos were a violation of his privacy.

After considering the problem, I removed the live view's and the every-minute photo's links from my website.  The small thumbnail remains on my dashboard, but doesn't represent much of a risk because monitoring his garage door with it would be extremely difficult.  I've renamed the live view and photo access scripts so I can use them whenever I want in order to see things like snowfall, as is currently happening.  Moreover because these feeds aren't SSL Chrome-based browsers won't display them.  I have to access them via Firefox or Safari.

[sky_watcher]

I experienced a different issue with my 'StreetView' camera a couple of years ago.  The neighbor across the street was concerned that the live view available on the internet could allow miscreants to monitor his comings and goings, thereby rendering him vulnerable to burglary when he was not home.  This is a very remote possibility, but he was unrelenting in his insistence that the live video and every-minute photos were a violation of his privacy.

Probably very unlikely that someone would be able to accurately monitor daily comings and goings to dash in and rob a house while the owner was shopping, but figuring out that someone was on holidays is a different issue. Quite a few years ago the house next door was broken into because apparently a person who walked past to the train station every day noticed that the curtains that were usually open in the morning and closed in the afternoon, were always shut.

We were also out the night of the break-in and let the dog out when we got home. He (doberman) went mental and flew up the back yard and would not come back for some time - must be a cat, we thought. Next morning the police came around and we discovered that our back had stuff from next door. The offender was transferring the loot from next door into our yard and then over the high fence via a shed roof into the adjoining cemetery. The guy was a moron because he came back early the following morning to try to get the stuff he missed when the dog saw him off. One of the other neighbours at the time was a policeman who saw him and nabbed him.