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Workplaces 'should ban camera phones'

Staff, CNETAsia CNETAsia

Published: 22 Oct 2003 09:00 BST

All companies, not just those handling highly sensitive materials, should ban employees and visitors bringing camera-enabled phones into the premises, according to an analyst.

"A clear policy of no camera-enabled phones -- just as there is a clear policy in most companies that no cameras are allowed on the premises -- is required and desirable," said Jack Gold, an analyst with IT research firm Meta Group.

Most organisations will "look unfavourably" on camera-enabled devices and will wish to "restrict their acquisition and use". They should set firm policies for such devices, he said.

While the image quality of cameras in most phones is poor, they are a channel for leaks of sensitive data or other images that can produce "unintended consequences", said Gold.

In few years, as the cost of putting cameras into phones drops ever further, most phones will sport one, he said.

"Although small, easy-to-carry digital cameras are also a threat, the sheer number of mobile phones with cameras represents a far larger installed base. Very few people currently carry digital cameras with them everywhere they go, as they do with mobile phones," he said.

Gold recommends that firms that supply staff with phone ensure that the mobile operators permanently disable the camera hardware. He also believes that firm should ask visitors to hand over phones for inspection before allowing them in.

For organisations that value security even higher, he suggests that they screen all mobile devices, not just phones, for cameras.

Analysts have predicted that there will be almost 1 billion camera phones in use within five years, which has led companies such as Samsung and LG Electronics to bar employees from using camera phones in research and manufacturing facilities because of fears over the security of sensitive data.

Besides corporate espionage, the growing popularity of camera phones has also sparked concerns over individual privacy. In some countries, the uses of these gadgets are already prohibited in public areas such as swimming pools and changing rooms to protect consumers against the wandering lenses of voyeurs.

Bookstore owners in Japan are also mulling measures to stop female shoppers from snapping pictures of magazines with their camera-phones, a trend they termed "digital shoplifting".

Korean authorities are reportedly mulling a law which makes it mandatory for phone makers to install a "noise emitter" in their camera-equipped handsets.

Under the proposed bill by Korea's ruling Millennium Democratic Party, manufacturers will have to design their camera phones to emit a loud noise when pictures are taken. This will alert the public when their pictures are snapped to prevent human rights infringements and industrial espionage.

Electronics firm Iceberg Systems is beta-testing Safe Haven, which combines hardware transmitters with a small piece of control software loaded into a camera phone handset. When the handset is taken into a room or building containing the Safe Haven hardware, the phone is instructed to deactivate the imaging systems. The systems are reactivated when the handset is out of range.