Further liberalization of camera phone use
Picture this. A man walking into a sensitive installation, wearing Google Glass equipped with a discreet miniature camera. He proceeded to take pictures of anything and everything he sees. Now rewind the story and this time we have a women, wearing a miniature camera the size of a blouse button. The permutation of scenario are numerous yet the reaction from are the same.... Increase security checks, increase spot check and new rules to mete out severe punishment to perpetrators. Not to mention the finger pointing and blaming game.
Welcome to the brand new world where anyone can have access to James Bond style spying tools and every security department are scrambling to find ways to prevent the sneak in of camera devices and leakage of sensitive photos. Lots of money and time are spend to prevent an elusive force whose stealth is up to the imagination and poker face of the smuggler. This resources are simply spend to suppress the singular issue of unauthorized photography and unfortunately at the same time deprive the increase value of mobile photography.
In the end, whether an individual decides to embark on internal espionage or simply the thrill of taking pictures and posting it on the internet boils down to INTENT. The best security measures may not be able to stop some one with a strong intention. Its boils down to education, discipline and instilling a sense of security ownership to the people.
Imagine one day we are all allowed to liberally bring in camera equipped phone into sensitive installation yet having the good discipline and education to ensure we do not take photos of sensitive facilities or equipment. Think about the value we can add to our work with this new found capability.
To be fair, there are already efforts to relax the rule of camera devices and it is a welcome change. There can however be further liberalization down the road for employee and the same time reducing the coverage of "No Camera Zone". Interestingly camera phone restriction did create a niche revenue stream for Telco and mobile phone-makers selling non-camera phone.
