Cam Phones, Go Home

Those camera-equipped cell phones may be the latest must-have tech product, with more than 31 million sold in North America last year alone. But the ability of users to snap pictures on the sly almost anywhere they go--and even put the images on the Internet--has prompted a growing number of places to institute a ban on the devices.

General Motors, Dell and Samsung--one of the leading producers of the phones--are among the companies that have prohibited employees from taking cam phones into sensitive research and production facilities, to prevent corporate espionage. Schools are banning them to halt cheating, since students have been nabbed shooting test questions and e-mailing them to others. Many courthouses ban the phones to prevent witness or juror intimidation. (At a superior court hearing in Los Angeles three months ago, a witness was photographed by a cam-phone user who threatened to post the photo on the Web.) Most gyms have set limits, especially in locker rooms, fearing members could take pictures of people in various states of undress.

Those localized bans, however, do little for anyone in a public area. One popular website proudly touts photos of female posteriors shot by cam phones in malls and parking lots. As long as photos are not taken up someone's skirt without her knowledge, they are legal. "It's not particularly tasteful," says attorney Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil-liberties group, "but people need to be aware that whatever you do in a public space can be recorded." Ladies, watch your back. --By Carolina A. Miranda