A secret filming of a date - do I need the other person permission?

[David Delaney]

I was thinking about dating and filming it - if I had a hidden camera and I was mic'd - do I need her permission if I publish this?

[Gary Nattrass]

I would say YES you will need permission, otherwise a nice law suit and an accusation of stalking or even worse may follow.

[Marc Burleigh]

Always dicey weighing in with advice about US laws. The downside of getting it wrong can be really expensive.

That said, I ain't in the States and feel no constraint in shooting from the hip. Any consequences of following my words rest entirely upon you and your legal team.

FWIW, I recall a similar scenario being raised in the Linda Tripp matter a while ago involving Monica Lewinsky. The nutshell, if I recall correctly, was that state laws applied, and they differed. But this was concerning recording a telephone conversation, which may be a different law to one governing the filming of a person.

As a general rule, filming someone in a public place -- ie. one where they don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy -- is usually OK. Note that restaurants, malls and other places owned by a person or company do not qualify as public spaces (well, malls might, unless they have a sign expressly forbidding filming).

Your problem -- aside from maybe being seen as betraying the trust of your date -- would be what use you planned to put the images to. You would not be able to broadcast them or exhibit them to any sort of public, not without your date's permission. Fair use for news purposes would not apply unless you were dating Paris Hilton. In a public place.

My two cents would be: don't do it. Or come up with a situation where the date is aware of the camera filming and talks to you anyway. Try explaining that it's for your blog or whatever.... generally after 20 minutes or so, they'll forget the camera exists if you ignore it too.

[George Kroonder]

I don't think you should look for legal advice here and from what I understand there are differences between states.

Generally I'd say you should be able to record a converstation you are a party in for your own personal record as long as your intend is not to capture an improper image of them or violate their privacy. Never tape minors.

You definately cannot make the footage public without (writen) consent/releases. You may run into the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act.

George/

[Martin Catt]

You're going to look pretty funny when she takes that camera and puts it where the sun don't shine. Either you haven't considered what this will do to the other person, or you just don't care.

Martin

[Paul R Johnson]

Legally? Who knows without spending some money - but morally it sucks unless you have some kind of reason.

I suspect that recording it is not legally a problem, but what you do with it afterwards certainly is.

There are plenty of TV programmes where subjects have been covertly recorded, but you only ever see the ones they sign a release for - I can't think of any that have gone wrong and showed the subject in a bad light that have been released into the public domain.

[Stelios Christofides]

David
Why would you do that? Can you give us a reason?

Stelios

[Andy Graham]

Imo it doesn't matter if its legal or not.......thats just down right creepy.

You start doin that with women and you'll quickly get a bad reputation.

Andy.

[Richard Gooderick]

How would you like it if she did that to you?

[Giroud Francois]

but in other hand, if you marry her and ten years later you can show her the first date....