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Comment by Arainach | Hacker News Reader

Is there case law on this? I don't see any way in which this is legally theft by the OP (admittedly my knowledge is more US-centric than Euro-centric). If I let someone tether a device to my cell phone (or loan my phone to them), are they committing theft?

The company on the contract voluntarily gave the SIM to OP.

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You better believe if I buy a property in Germany which has security cameras inside the absolute first thing that’s happening is those are getting smashed to absolute bits and if anyone even tries to complain I’ll sue them.

I may even consider filing against the previous tenants for not removing them and so my being filmed destroying them was without my consent, it’s a clear crime to me to record someone on their private property without their permission ..

This is absolutely not normal anywhere.

Same thing in France and I don't understand some answers in this thread. My home -> my cameras, and you can be sure they will be removed and thrown away ASAP. It's at least a violation of my privacy and wouldn't be tolerated where I live.

IAALBNYL it’s not theft because they’ve been abandoned and are in the new owner’s possession. If the prior owner can’t be reached and the security company which claims to own them won’t take them, they’re probably fair game.

I do not see any way in which this property could still be considered the previous owners. Let's say the camera was in the bathroom pointed directly at the shower. You just have to suck it up forever, knowing that someone could be watching? In fact, I could imagine it being a criminal charge for trying to capture people in the nude. What if someone has a child who bathes there? Now they were trying to create CP.

Even if that were the law, you could disconnect the cameras or cover the lens.

What if it has microphones which are not so obviously obscured? I do not see why it should depend upon my technical acumen to non-destructively disable a surveillance device within my private space.

It’s property law 101 that possession and ownership are not the same thing.

Imagine it was a credit card found in the car, what are the material differences? Note the suggestion is to willfully use the device in a way.

Well, one is tied to a private bank account, the other is a privacy-violation device tied to no one.

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