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Comment by fuzzzerd | Hacker News Reader

There is no solution to that as far as I can tell, and it really stinks.

Legislation would help. As one example, a neighbor pointing their Ring at your property without your consent is entirely illegal in Germany.

And thankfully this will run afoul of the First Amendment in the United States.

I think in the US it’s more like “everything you can see through the window is public”, which is also an extreme.

Indeed. In Germany, it's generally legal to see in people's windows, legal for them to do whatever they want in their windows (you can't file a complaint someone is naked in their apartment with the curtains open - they will just tell you not to look if you don't want to see it) and illegal to record in other people's windows.

Illegal recording is a pretty good rule actually. Almost every party I've been to has a rule against filming dance floors, although in German law it's only illegal to publish a recording "of" a person. The flip side to illegal recording is that it's effectively legal to do silly things without worrying it'll haunt you forever, and that's pretty cool. Note the relatively relaxed attitude to things like public nudity (which is only legal in certain places as I understand it, but still). Almost every Berlin party I've ever been to has a rule against filming.

I do not think it's a good rule because it means you can't set up any sort of security camera that can see off your property. No dashcams to accurately point the blame for the accident. And unless you have a very high mounting point you can't even point them at your own property because they'll catch other things.

That's correct. Security cameras that see off your property are illegal and you WILL go to prison for having one. Why do you think you need one?

I think there's an exception for dashcams. Might still be illegal to publish recordings. Not sure.

You can put shutters on a camera so it can't see off your property.

Also you have to tell people they're entering a video surveilled area before they enter that area. Or else you go to prison.

Shutters don't work unless you have a very high vantage point. Consider the most forgiving camera I have--pointing west from not very far from the east edge of my property, it's angled such that the top of the frame is horizontal and the edge of the frame is parallel to the house. The maximum range I would realistically want to see a face is about halfway across my property from the location of the camera. Put a shutter to cut off the neighbor and I also cut off the head of someone approaching my front door. To make it work the camera would need to be at least 12' in the air--which would mean fastening it to air.

Fancier cameras can have filters on the motion sensor (which I wish I had--mine wasted too much recording time on the wind moving a tree), but you can't exclude the area.

Everything you can see through a window *from public property*. Or from other people's private property with their permission. If they have to enter your property to see it they need a warrant.

"thankfully" you can record your neighbors without their permission or knowing? You kinda sound like a creep, hopefully you're already known to the cops as a pervert.

"He's a pervert, but he's our kind of pervert"

lasers?

Even better: an infrared laser.

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