Soaking in a hot spring suddenly went on a live broadcast, is "being live-streamed" considered an infringement?

I was eating, getting a haircut, getting fit, and shopping, but I found myself in the live webcast. What's going on?

Different from the live broadcast of anchors with goods, some businesses now focus their live broadcast cameras at ordinary people who are consuming in restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, scenic spots and other places. Consumers become a diversion tool without knowing it.

Soaking in the hot springs and eating suddenly became a "person in the painting"

A time-honored snack bar in Chaoyang District provides all kinds of noodles, snacks and stir-fried dishes from morning to night. The uncles and aunts in the neighborhood especially like to come here to enjoy breakfast, noodle tea, fried cakes, fried tofu soup, and eat the old taste. But they didn't notice that on the shelf behind the ordering counter, a mobile phone, connected to the power supply, broadcast live the dining in the store throughout the day.

"Is it live TV? What is it on mobile phones? I haven't seen it. An aunt left the snack bar slowly, unaware that the whole process of her meal just now was filmed and transmitted to the live broadcast platform in real time for netizens to watch.

The mobile phone used for live broadcast in this store is very close to the store's surveillance camera, and the footage captured by the mobile phone basically covers the entire store. The mobile phone camera is facing the ordering counter, and basically, as long as you go to the store to eat and order, the consumer's face will definitely be photographed.

In a snack bar in Chaoyang District, the location of the live broadcast mobile phone is very close to the ordering counter

The live broadcast of this snack bar is a live broadcast in the store, without the intervention of the anchor. On the online platform, there are many restaurants that broadcast live in-store live. The biggest feature of this type of live broadcast is that there is no anchor in the live broadcast screen, mainly filming the store environment, dishes and consumer meals. Even if there is an anchor, it is in the form of oral broadcasting.

In the live broadcast of a seafood buffet restaurant in Beijing, the anchor walked around the store, introducing various meals in the store while filming, "Family, we have unlimited food here, unlimited amounts." "In the live broadcast screen, consumers continue to appear, and many people's faces are exposed to the camera.

On social platforms, there are already many consumers who have expressed their dissatisfaction with such live broadcasts. "Who brought up the atmosphere of live broadcast guests eating now?" "I was eating while looking at my phone, and when I looked up, I saw the live camera facing me. "Not for myself, but for the customers, all the looks of my meals were broadcast live, and I felt speechless when I thought about it. "Isn't it an invasion of privacy for a guest's every move to be shown without their knowledge?"

Citizen Xiaoma recalled: "I went to the hot springs during the Spring Festival this year, and when I was wandering around the hot spring amusement facilities, I saw an anchor who kept 'chattering' live broadcasts. I thought to myself, now this live broadcast is really pervasive. But later, when I watched the live broadcast, I realized that the anchor was not shooting at himself, but at the consumer. ”

The doubts of netizens have caused disputes in reality. At the end of March this year, in Xi'an, two elderly people were unknowingly photographed by the store and uploaded to the short video platform. Afterwards, the video was inadvertently seen by the family members of the elderly when they watched the video, so they found the store to complain, believing that the store had violated the privacy of the two elderly people. After repeated negotiations, the store deleted the video.

In March last year, Ms. Hu from Taiyuan found herself appearing in the live broadcast screen during a haircut, and was criticized by many netizens in real time. Ms. Hu was so upset that she asked the hairstylist to stop the live broadcast, and although the hairstylist turned the camera away, she was unrelenting, complaining that Ms. Hu was "too pedantic".

Minors have become "little actors" in live broadcasts

Restaurants, hairdressers, gyms and other consumption places are all high-frequency scenarios for live broadcasts. The reporter found that some barber shops, during the live broadcast, directly filmed customers "in the face". And some gyms are live streaming the scene of dancing during business hours.

In addition, tourist attractions and children's parks, such places with a very large passenger flow, often have live broadcasts shot at consumers, especially for minors to appear in the live broadcast screen.

"Family, let's not play false, it's all real prices, four-star standard hotels throughout the whole process. "An anchor put her mobile phone on the side of the street, constantly recommending travel products, and tourists passing by all included her lens. Not only Qianmen, but also popular scenic spots such as Shichahai, the Forbidden City, and Universal Studios are haunted by anchors who use live broadcast tourist screens to recommend tourism products. As can be seen from the live broadcast footage, some tourists will curiously turn their heads to look at the live broadcast footage, find themselves being filmed, and quickly turn away.

At the entrance of a children's paradise in Daxing District, from more than 8 o'clock in the morning, the anchor broadcast live to the door. Every child who enters the park to play will be photographed by her. The anchor took the trouble to recommend the package tickets for the park, "We have two big and one small package here, families can pay attention to it." There are cute pets and roller coasters in the park, and the package is all included, so you can play. ”

There are also children's parks, which aim the live camera at the iconic facilities in the park, and many children do not know that they have been broadcast live when they take photos here. In some indoor parks, the anchor holds a mobile phone and broadcasts live in the park. Unsuspecting children, happily running around in front of the camera.

As early as 2021, in the "Clear Action", the Cyberspace Administration of China clearly pointed out that minors under the age of 16 are strictly prohibited from appearing in live broadcasts. The online platform itself also has management requirements for minors to appear in live broadcasts, and penalties such as bans will be imposed if they violate the rules.

The drainage effect makes merchants "can't stop"

"Oh boys, I'm going to go off the air. The number of children began to increase, and minors were not allowed to appear in the camera, otherwise the platform would punish me. When the reporter checked the live broadcast of a children's park, the anchor knew very well that minors were not suitable to appear in the live broadcast footage. But the next day, the live broadcast of the park continued, and the camera was still on the children and parents.

At the moment when live streaming is prevalent, the drainage effect brought by a live broadcast makes merchants want to stop. Some live broadcast service providers make it clear when recommending their own live broadcast packages that live streaming in real-time scenarios can help businesses realize the conversion of online traffic to offline traffic. Taking a small restaurant as an example, the regular live broadcast for 6 hours a day and a week of continuous live broadcast can increase the transaction volume by more than 90,000 yuan.

On the official website of a company that provides live broadcast solutions, the reporter saw another way of live broadcasting - "monitoring live broadcast", as the name suggests, it is to display the content captured by surveillance through live broadcast. The company emphasized that the "monitoring live broadcast" is 24 hours online, so the audience can see at any time, "monitoring is also an indispensable security equipment for the scenic spot, if the monitoring can be connected to the live broadcast, for the scenic spot to do publicity and promotion, why not?"

Some of the company's "surveillance livestreams" are aimed at the open mountains, while others inevitably capture tourists. Moreover, on the display page of the company's official website, you can also see the monitoring footage in the classrooms of several kindergartens.

According to Article 1018 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, "natural persons enjoy the right of portraiture and have the right to make, use, disclose or permit others to use their own portraits in accordance with the law." Article 1019 stipulates: "Without the consent of the portrait rights holder, the portrait ...... of the portrait rights holder shall not be produced, used, or disclosed."

Recently, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission and the Jiangsu Provincial High People's Court released the "2023 Typical Cases of Consumer Rights Protection in the Province". Among them, "Case 10" is that consumers sue merchants for publishing videos of service processes on the Internet without their permission, infringing on their portrait rights, privacy rights, and reputation rights. The court held that the merchant's behavior constituted an infringement of the consumer's portrait right, and ordered the merchant to apologize on the social platform for 10 days and compensate the consumer for 1,000 yuan for mental damages.

The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission believes that some businesses without the consent of consumers live broadcast consumption scenes with prominent personal images such as fitness and dining, or make short videos and upload them to the platform for commercial promotion, which is actually alienating consumers into drainage tools or free advertisements, blurring the boundary between the autonomy of business operations and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Facial information brings uncertain risks, especially in the current era of the widespread application of biometric technology, facial features, fingerprint information, movement trajectory and other personal portrait features are easy to be captured, once used by criminals, it will cause damage to the personal and property safety of consumers.

Source: Beijing Daily APP, Jiupai News