Photographers in the US watch out...

[Synke]

...or there might be a federal agent banging on your door soon:

http://petapixel.com/2013/09/20/us-govt-records-suspicious-photographers-legally-taking-pictures/

[Ron Correia]

I use a site meter on one of my photo sites so I can see where visitors originate. The meter includes the DNS name of the originating IP address if that DNS name is know. Within 3-4 days of my posting photos of bridges or dams, I'll see DHS (Department of Homeland Security) browsing the site. This is nothing new, though. It's been going on for as long as I've been posting photos online.

[Angelique]

There are cameras all over the place nowadays doing surveillance/observing for companies, governments, and private individuals. I would like to think we have the right to a reasonable level of privacy in our homes but I do not assume that I have those same privacy rights in any public forum. I know I have taken shots of people without their permission and I have even posted some.

[John W. Cundiff]

Does this mean somebody will actually look at my images?? LOL

[Karen H]

Ohhh I'm there already. I was taking pictures of oil silos and a cop came and asked to see my license and took down my phone number and wrote it all up. Then told me it was ok to stay, he just needed the info.

[Danette Thompson]

I was openly taking photos of a public shopping center (great angles). The security guard asked what I was doing and he allowed me to stay until the property manager came by and asked me to leave. I didn't go shopping there for a while.

[☠northy]

@chapjohn bwahaahaaaaa! i thought the same thing!

but srsly... this is bizarrely paranoid in my mind... i mean ANYONE can take a photo surrepticiously these days... if there's something to worry about, it prolly isn't the person who's shooting in plain sight ;p

[Kathryn]

I got chased out of a lobby of a building once. The funny thing was that I had taken the pictures outside and really just ducked in there to look at them since outside there was too much glare on my screen. I guess the issue was that I had a real camera and not a cell phone because I'm sure that every single person in the lobby was packing a camera.

[🍁April 🍁]

I was taking photos of a EMPTY playground and had some town employee stop and ask me if I was planning a terrorist attack. I thought he was joking and laughed, but he was quite serious. After I explained I was doing photos for a fall fair, he left. Really weird experience.