Imaging

'Offensive but not Invasive? Imaging and Privacy in the ACT' by Bruce Baer Arnold in (2018) 15(3) Privacy Law Bulletin 47 comments

A recent ACT Supreme Court judgment has demonstrated the limits of the 2014 amendments to the Crimes Act 1900 (ACT) meant to protect privacy by prohibiting upskirting and downblousing. The ACT has grappled with balancing dignity and practicality regarding privacy as a matter of freedom from interference in public and private places. The territory government has also grappled, less successfully, with difficulties in statutory drafting and policy development. Those challenges are evident in a number of recent court decisions, particularly Stroop v Harris in which the court concluded that photographing the clothed genital area of women in a public area was not an invasion of privacy. This article considers that judgment and its implications for privacy protection in public spaces across Australia.