Privacy and security issues are leading a growing number of state and local governments and businesses to consider laws and policies banning or restricting use of camera phones.
Iowa lawmakers last week began debating a bill to make use of the picture-taking cellular telephones in public spaces where people disrobe a misdemeanor. That measure was spawned by, among other thing, a recent incident in which someone allegedly took pictures inside the restroom of a Sioux City, Iowa, restaurant.
State Rep. Jim Van Fossen, R-Davenport, told an Iowa House panel in Des Moines the popular digital camera-equipped phones look like regular cell phones and said people are becoming concerned about violations of their privacy.
"You wouldn't even know if someone was taking your picture," Van Fossen said. "It looks just like a regular cell phone, but it has a lens on it the size of an eraser."
A bill voted out of committee would make using a camera phone in health clubs and school locker rooms punishable by a $100 fine, even if the camera was not used, the Quad City Times said.
Chicago's City Council is considering a similar ordinance that would bar camera phones from public bathrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms and showers. Violators would face fines ranging from $5 to $500.
Many courthouses that already restrict cell phones are extending bans to camera phones to protect the privacy of witnesses and jurors.
YMCAs around the country are enacting policies banning camera phones in locker and pool areas, treating the devices like any other photographic or video equipment.
Police in Moline, Ill., arrested a man last December for allegedly videotaping under the dresses of female employees at the SouthPark Mall. A camera phone was used in a similar "up skirt" incident at a New Jersey Wal-Mart last summer.
The Washington-based Electronic Private Information Center said Wisconsin, Washington and Louisiana were among states that have passed or are considering legislation banning use of the devices for prurient interest, generally sexual exploitation.
"I don't think the technology should be banned," said Chris Hoofnagle, associate director of the privacy advocacy group founded in 1994. "It might be inappropriate to take pictures in certain places."
Hoofnagle told United Press International that laws restricting use of still photography were enacted after the development of flash powder and faster speed films.
He calls inappropriate use of camera phones "public space voyeurism."
Britain's Sun newspaper reported London commuters used camera phones to take pictures of the body of a 40-year-old woman who had thrown herself under a subway train until police cleared the station platform.
With the rising potential for thoughtless electronic indiscretion, it's only a matter of time before a major lawsuit is filed over a camera phone picture.
Saudi Arabia bans the camera phones. Customs officials in Cuba reportedly told British tourists to leave their camera phones behind when they disembarked a cruise ship, according to the Inquirer, a U.K. Web site.
In the United States, the National Security Agency issued an advisory that camera phones are not authorized for use or possession at any Air Force facility that handles classified information.
The high-tech combination cell phone/digital cameras sell for between $150 and $400 and have been popular in Japan and South Korea for years.
More expensive smart phone models allow users to surf the Internet, send and receive text messages and even attach a sound file to a grainy color image and transmit it wirelessly via email.
Other models allow users to view 15-second streamed video clips.
Camera phones made up 4 percent of worldwide cell phone sales in 2002. Since then sales have soared with more than 65 million camera phone users around the globe. About 6 million camera phone handsets were shipped to the United States in 2003. Sales are expected to top 10 million in 2004 as better one- and two-mega-pixel models replace early entry-level models that took poor quality pictures.
An estimated 800 million camera phones will be in use worldwide by 2007, according to IDC, a technology research group.
Blurry low-definition pictures are one thing but the instant availability of high-quality images that can be transmitted from nearly anywhere is fueling fears of industrial espionage.
South Korea's Samsung Corp., a major cell phone and electronics manufacturer, makes several flip phone models but bans the devices from corporate offices and plants.
Motorola is developing policies on camera phone use at its Schaumburg, Ill., headquarters.
Major corporations like General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Texas Instruments have restricted camera phone handsets as they become more ubiquitous.
Since September, employees and visitors cannot bring a camera phone inside a DaimlerChrysler facility. USA Today said the handsets are banned from GM product development centers "for security reasons."
"It all makes me think of a John LeCarre-spy movie with tiny cameras," John Challenger, chief executive officer of Chicago-based international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas told the Daily Herald newspaper. "Technology in general, is really changing what the workplace is all about."
Only 17 percent of 144 respondents polled online by Security Wire Perspectives currently ban camera phone use in the workplace, but nearly half surveyed were concerned about inappropriate use of the devices. A quarter said they considering policies to restrict camera phones.
The biggest concerns were unauthorized photographing of documents, violations of employee privacy and taking pictures of physical infrastructure, but with the incredible array of high-tech gear available for professional spying camera phones are probably insignificant.
Consumers probably should be more worried about someone snapping a picture of their credit card for an identity theft.
