A.T.Kearney plays down mobile camera furore - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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A.T.Kearney plays down mobile camera furore

By Iain Ferguson, 0
June 12, 2003
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/A-T-Kearney-plays-down-mobile-camera-furore/0,130061791,120275329,00.htm

A leading management consultant has downplayed the market impact of the furore over privacy issues associated with camera-enabled mobile phones as state attorneys-general pledged to consider the matter at a meeting in August.

A.T. Kearney principal Mark Higgins said while the privacy issues that erupted over the last two days in Australia "were legitimate issues," they were characteristic of the advent of a new technology and the industry would work through them.

Higgins, speaking after the release of a report from the consultancy which identified photo-messaging as the next "breakout capability" of new-generation mobile phones in Australia, told ZDNet Australia he believed a sensible balance would be struck between the various parties involved in the area.

He said he could not see the issue proving to be a barrier to people buying new-generation phones.

However, some reports in Australia indicate state attorneys-general are planning to consider changing privacy laws to protect individuals from photography via the camera-enabled phones.

Release of the report follows controversy yesterday over a plan by a leading sporting organisation -- the YMCA -- to ban or restrict the use of mobile telephones in change-rooms nationwide, citing the need to protect individuals' privacy.

The Royal Life Saving Society of Australia has also advised more than 3,000 public swimming pools across Australia to implement the ban, and recommended private pools adopt similar measures.

The issue of privacy and the capabilities of new-generation mobile telephones erupted earlier this week after a Sydney newspaper used on its front page a picture -- taken by a Web camera-enabled mobile telephone -- of flamboyant Sydney stockbroker Rene Rivkin during his first weekend in jail.