Dear Red Phone,
“I have a friend who lives in an apartment complex and her neighbor has a video camera pointed directly at her door. I was approaching her apartment with my daughter and he started moving the camera, like zooming in. I’m wondering if that’s right or is it against the law for him to be video taping her apartment directly? And what can I do about it?”
Dear reader, the following is a response to your question from Gilroy Police Sgt. Pedro Espinoza:
“It is only against the law to secretly video tape in places where there is reasonable expectation of privacy. If this video camera is being zoomed into someone’s bedroom, bathroom, changing room or any other place where you have an expectation of privacy, then it is against the law. If the video camera, or any other means of digitally recording, is concealed and/or modified for the purposes of videotaping someone’s undergarments (under skirt, etc.,); without the person’s consent, then it is against the law. There is no expectation of privacy out in public; or any other places accessible to the public (exceptions: bathrooms/changing rooms – where you reasonably expect privacy), and therefore, not illegal to be video tape without consent.”
