After a spy camera designed to look like a towel hook was purchased on Amazon and illegally used for months to capture photos of a minor in her private bathroom, Amazon was sued.
The plaintiff—a former Brazilian foreign exchange student then living in West Virginia—argued that Amazon had inspected the camera three times and its safety team had failed to prevent allegedly severe, foreseeable harms still affecting her today.
Amazon hoped the court would dismiss the suit, arguing that the platform wasn’t responsible for the alleged criminal conduct harming the minor. But after nearly eight months deliberating, a judge recently largely denied the tech giant’s motion to dismiss.
Amazon’s biggest problem persuading the judge was seemingly the product descriptions that the platform approved. An amended complaint included a photo from Amazon’s product listing that showed bathroom towels hanging on hooks that disguised the hidden camera. Text on that product image promoted the spycams, boasting that they “won’t attract attention” because each hook appears to be “a very ordinary hook.”
Watching the babysitter if you think she’s abusing your kids.
Monitoring your office if you’re a politician afraid of poisoning.
Making an OnlyFans of Grandma pooping.
Lots of legitimate uses if you’re creative enough.
Watching the babysitter if you think she’s abusing your kids. In the bathroom? Cause that’s where towel hooks are.
Monitoring your office if you’re a politician afraid of poisoning. See above
My jokes aside, I absolutely have towel hooks in non bathrooms. It’s turns out there also capable of holding jackets and other things, despite the name.
And also, the bathroom seems like a prime location for a child abuser to corner a victim.
Huh. I’m actually swinging very slightly back toward Amazon’s side on this. Only very slightly, though. This is a tricky case.
If you think the baby sitter is abusing your kid, your a moron, why even hire him/her.
And now you are also recording the babysitter going to the bathroom.
Yeah but what am I going to do with all my coat hooks? Hang towels on them!?
Are you some kind of anarchist?
Couldn’t that as easily be a coat hanger or something to hang your keys or bag on? A hook is a hook.
And why could that hallway not be covered by a regular security cam instead?
Valid point
but once you advertise it as a surreptitious towel hook and show pictures of it being used as a surreptitious towel hook, it becomes not just any kind of hook. one of the use cases proposed by the manufacturer has become manufacturing illegal pornography by setting up a hidden cam in the bathroom.
they advertised it as a towel hook AND if they used it to hang hats or whatever it could block the camera. I think its fair to say this is a very creepy camera.
And what about grandma’s onlyfans? Checkmate
You had me in the first half, not gonna lie.
What? Grandma consented! It’s her kink.
Deterrence is always preferable. Clear monitoring may stop crimes in addition to capturing wanton disregard. A disguised bathroom cam is clearly designed to capture illegal footage. It isn’t a deterrent to crime, it’s a tool to commit it. Spy cams in general are sleazy and disgusting.
Even a nanny cam, despite the clearly just intentions, allow a crime to happen more so than clear security cameras and can be used for less lawful things due to their design.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-15/irvine-man-hidden-camera-wife-drano-allegations
Deterrence stops people from doing bad things in front of the camera. Useful if you have physical choke points that funnel people to the camera itself of course. But if you put up an obvious nanny cam in one room, all you guarantee is that the abuse happens in another.