Advances in technology make it easier to invade someone’s privacy

For the second time this year, someone has been arrested for allegedly taking a photo of someone in a bathroom without their consent.

Austin Miller, a former Columbia Public Schools teacher, is accused of using his phone to take a photo of another man in the bathroom at Ellis Library on the University of Missouri campus.

Privacy law experts said advances in technology make it easier to invade someone’s privacy.

“Cell phones do make it easier,” said MU Communications Law professor Sandy Davidson. “They’re so small and have enhancement techniques.”

But the law is the law, and it’s illegal to take a photo of someone who is nude or partially nude without their consent.

“It says public restroom, but you still have a reasonable expectation of privacy in there,” said Davidson. “Any place where you are undressing, you might want to be a little bit wary.”

Missouri didn’t have an invasion of privacy law on the books until 1995, when a man in Buffalo, Missouri got caught taking photos of women at a tanning salon.

The Missouri Senate just passed a bill that would make revenge porn illegal. If a relationship sours and someone shares a photo that was taken with consent at the time, but is a photo from a past relationship, they could be charged with a crime. The House still has to sign off on it for it to be sent to the governor’s desk.