Business Advised To Regulate Camera Phone Use

Insensitive use of camera phones by employees can cost businesses money, because such cases can lead to lawsuits against employers, as well as individuals, Meta Group warned.

"If I'm ticked off, I don't just sue you, because you don't have any money," Meta Group analyst Jack Gold said. "I go after the guy with the deep pockets."

Such issues have already arisen in health clubs, where offensive or inappropriate pictures of people could be taken in bathrooms or locker rooms. To avoid trouble, many clubs have banned camera phones from their facilities.

Camera phones pose a security threat to companies that have trade secrets to protect. Manufacturers, for example, could be hurt financially if pictures of a new product design were leaked to competitors. Government agencies also need to protect themselves to avoid classified documents being sent to foreign agents.

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"It's not a simple problem, but it's one that companies should be aware of and they should react to," Gold said.

Digital cameras, Gold added, should also be restricted in business settings, but camera phones pose even more of a security risk because they are small, more people have cellphones, and the pictures can be transmitted instantly on the Internet.

The research firm advises businesses to set firm policies and restrictions on the use of camera phones. Those policies also need to be widely distributed, so every employee is aware of the rules and knows they could be fired for certain infractions.

"If you're Intel, and you're worried about losing your next Pentium 5 chip, and you catch someone with a camera phone snapping pictures, you'll probably walk their butt out the door," Gold said. "If (the employee) is taking inappropriate pictures in a locker room, then you'll also walk their butt out the door. But if they're taking pictures of a couple of people messing around in a cafeteria, you may only slap their wrist. The punishment should fit the crime."

Most employees, however, are honest and clearly defined policies will prevent most problems from occurring, Gold said. "This is really preemptive."

An increasing number of people are choosing camera phones over more traditional cellular phones, because the additional cost is marginal, between $2 and $5 per phone, Meta said.

The number of advanced cellular phones, those capable of taking pictures or running consumer and business applications, is expected to increase worldwide from 43 million this year to 366 million by 2008, according to market research firm In-Stat/MDR.

Shipments for all phones, on the other hand, are forecast to increase from 465 million to 683 million, showing that phones with advanced capabilities are expected to make up nearly half of all units sold by manufacturers by 2008

This story courtesy of TechWeb.