Has live streaming gone too far?

I was today years old when I found out that there was a 24/7 livestream going on of famous pop-art artist Andy Warhol’s gravestone. Now you might ask yourself, why? Apparently it has been installed to commemorate the would-be 85th birthday of the artist and has been streaming ever since. I must say that answer didn’t leave me very satisfied, the question of why it  what I did find out, after some internet research, was that this was not the only live stream going on that was, to say the least, a little strange. Thus, here my blogpost about sometimes weird, sometimes questionable and sometimes downright alarming live streams.

Las Vegas wedding chapel

While I was scrolling through the website where the Andy Warhol gravestone is being live streamed, I found another live stream which was, to say the least, quite interesting. The Las Vegas wedding chapel cam is a live stream where a wedding chapel in Las Vegas is being live streamed. So yes, you can watch drunk people make the mistake of getting married in Las Vegas. And… the vendor has an Elvis Presley impersonator. Although this might all seem funny at first, the ethics behind the livestreaming are questionable at best. But all and all, it still is pretty funny to watch drunk people get married with an Elvis impersonator.

The One Dollar Hotel

[Promotion Video] One Dollar Hotel – あさひ旅館ch【旅館Youtuber. (put on the English captions)

A live stream that I found even a little more strange than the Las Vegas wedding chapel cam, was the live stream from the Japanese One Dollar Hotel. Although you can stay the night in the hotel for only a dollar, there is a, slightly strange and to some even disturbing, catch, you have to live stream your entire stay. This means that the entire time that you are in that room, there is a possibility that you are being watched by people online. Now, the hotel does have some rules: you can turn the light off whenever you want, the sound is not being captured, the bathroom does not have any cameras in it and any lewd activities are prohibited. However, it does seem extremely strange to me still. To me, this type of live stream really confronts people with how little we value our own privacy nowadays because people actually do this! Not only do we give away our privacy online without much thought behind it, but this lack of care is also actually being translated into

Spycams in Hotels

How many spycams can Stacey Dooley find in a love motel bedroom I BBC – BBC. (turn on English captions)

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the most disturbing examples of them all, the recording and/or live streaming of your hotel stay via secret hidden cameras. In South Korea these hidden cameras, or molkas, have become a real problem. The goal of these cameras is to capture you and your partner engaging in sexual activity, your hotel stay becomes their pornographic content. Of course, this is totally unacceptable. Although the South Korean government is trying hard to stop the people who put these secret cameras in the hotel room, unfortunately this is still happening today. While it might not be live streaming in itself that is causing this harm, I do think that this shows the privacy problems that we are encountering in a world where (security) technology is advancing so rapidly.