Christchurch couple's privacy not breached

The Christchurch couple whose intimate office encounter was filmed and shared online has led to questions of whether it should have been illegal to film them, Radio New Zealand reports.

Footage of the couple taken by some of the 200 patrons from the nearby Carlton pub and other passersby made its way on to social media, attracting hundreds of shares and comments.

Privacy lawyer Kathryn Dalziel said the case raised questions about whether the law was keeping up with technology at a time when everyone had a camera on their cellphone.

“The big question we have to ask is, should it have been illegal [to film the pair]?

“Should we be changing people's behaviour based on technology, or do we have to simply accept the technology's there and people's rights to privacy have changed?”

Because the pair did not take steps to ensure their privacy, there is little the police could do, and Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said even though publication of the images may have been extremely hurtful to those involved, the law cannot protect them.

“The people who were watching, we may criticise them for a lapse of decency in taking advantage of that, but it's unlikely there'd be any legal liability for their action,” he said.

NetSafe chief executive Martin Cocker said one option was to ask social media websites to take down the images. The internet safety organisation was prepared to help them with that, though under present law it was not easy to achieve.

Cocker said the Harmful Digital Communications Bill was currently before Parliament and would make it easier for people to remove such images.