Indeed, it’s a mess. And that mess is one of the reasons we have been witnessing a shift against the very notion of public space.

I’ve noticed a few people trying to argue with me specifically. I have no idea why (like I think I said, I just mentioned what I know and I don’t even do photograph anymore) but that’s fine with me. And while they seem to be so vocally willing to defend their undisputed (by me, at the very least) right to privacy I can only wonder how many of those privacy warriors are carrying their own spyware riddled smartphone absolutely everywhere they go, including to the most private place I can think of: the bathroom. And I feel 100% reassured knowing they will pick the right fights ;)

What gives you the right to take my picture?

Check the definition of the word public in ‘public space’.

But I think you should first need to work on yourself, that would help a lot being able to have a discussion instead of what looks a little bit too much like an argument we certainly should not have you and I as I don’t know you and have as much desire to photograph you as I wish to eat poop.

Have a nice day.

Like I mentioned elsewhere, anyone is more than welcome to do what they want. I simply noticed how frequently justice decisions started to punish the photographer, whether the photo was destined at some personal use or not, whether it was sold or not.

I’m no lawyer. I simply don’t want to waste anymore of my time, and money, dealing with that kind of shit. It’s not worth it… to me at least but, once again, I won’t prevent anyone else to keep doing photography like if nothing had changed if that’s what they want… I may even sketch them if I see them taking their chance doing that ;)

I said not allowed to take picture never told it was to publish or share them. Really, if you have access to you should read recent justice decisions and see how, here in France and in Germany at the very least, they will almost be in favor of… not the photographer, whether the photo was meant to be published or not, whether the photo earned them a cent or not.

For the rest, we live in a free society and I will happily let anyone practice photography as they see fit (provided they do it politely) but don’t expect me to pretend trends have not changed in regards to justice and the right to image, because those trends they have indeed changed and not in favor of photographers.

I mean, your freedom to record in public ends where my freedom to not be recorded in public starts.

Prior to our wonderful times, and even more so in the UK, public space meant that were no right to privacy to be expected at all while using said public space because, you know, it was public. But the moronic age we live in have managed to change that. So be it.

So, worry not my dear friend: as a law abiding citizen myself, I dutifully respect your so-called freedom to use what is supposed to a public space as your very own private space, and I 100% gave up on photography the second time I was confronted to the consequences of people considering their freedom implied they were to decide what ‘public’ meant.

Instead, I switched to sketching the very same people in the very same public space.

They may be as annoyed by me doing that but good luck forbidding me to sketch in a public space or even proving it was them I specifically I sketched… as, even though I do enjoy it, I suck at sketching ;)

Using a camera on public property in the EU is broadly very legal.

Less and less so; at least here in France and in Germany and also in the UK, which was quite surprising to me. In the EU, the GDRP being another nail in the coffin of the right of photographing on public space and photographing random people in that public space. Most of the cases I’ve heard of in the last few years ended up with the plaintiff winning against the photographer, even if the picture was not exploited professionally.

Smart glasses will raise a new flag and push all rules to the next level of paranoia (rightfully so, I’m afraid) and will then be used as an excuse to remove even more of our liberty to use public space (which is supposed to be ours).

Edit: clarifications.

I suppose you’re asking if I’m French? Yes. And, yes, it’s a French operator (Bouygues Mobile)

Anyone have any advice?

• Ask them for their number, and see how it goes? Worst case, they will say ‘no’, end of the story. Maybe the will ask why you don’t have IG and that will be the start of an interesting conversation.
• Try to meet different kind of people? I mean it seriously. I know a lot of people around me who have IG/Facebook/X and so on but at the same time none of them make it a requirement to use it.
• Use a second phone/number for that crap content only? I barely use my ‘real’ phone (I have nothing installed on it beside what I’m required to use) still I do own a second phone just so I can easily share a number with all the services and various craps that ask for one. It’s a phone I never answer to, despite it being constantly harassed by callers. And that peace of mind (my real number is almost spam free) only costs me the 2€/month (plus the phone, I purchased used). You should be able to do something similar for social networks: have a second phone without anything personal on it, just with IG.
• Accept that you’re doomed to use IG because it’s with those ‘IG people’ and no others you want to spend your time with? I like to spend time with people reading books, it’s kinda expected we indeed read books. Would I not like to read, I would not spend as much time with them.

Neither Tuta or Proton will neatly integrate with Apple Mail if you want to send/receive encrypted messages. At least the last I checked it required for Proton a separate client that was not bug free (can’t remember for tuta).

If you don’t care about encryption, you may want to consider the Swiss Infomaniak.

They have a cloud offer which includes cloud storage (1to base), calendar and email, plus the online version of MSOffice, all being hosted on their Swiss servers.