Are We Criminal Voyuers?

There is a vigorous debate happening in the comments of a news story right now, and it lands right on us.

Tennessee’s legislature has a bill, the Voyeurism Victims Act, extending the statute of limitations from one year out to several, so victims who find out they were taped without their knowledge have time to act. Good bill. Not the debate.

The debate is this. Are street photographers doing effectively the same thing? Photographing people without their knowledge, in public. Are we voyeurs? Is it criminal? Should we be arrested under this act?

Someone in the comments had to remind the room, and I’ll remind you, that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in public. That’s the law, and it’s the foundation street photography stands on.

But I have a genuine question, and maybe you know the answer. You can’t photograph into someone’s home from outside. Got it. What about through a restaurant window? A shop window? I’ve shot through plenty of windows. The frame of the window, a face in the window, someone at a table. Where exactly is that line?

I’m asking because I want to stay on the right side of it, and because reasonable people can disagree about where it is. Comments.