I was in Amsterdam last weekend and made a huge faux pas. While on a bike tour that passed through the Red Light District, I noticed that some of the red bulbs in the little lantern holders were the energy-saving, ice-cream whip type.
I thought this was a great visual representation of a city and country that has a pragmatic attitude towards sex work and a commitment to helping the environment. Sauntering through the area the next day, a few hours before catching my train home, I got my camera out to take a photo of one such bulb.
The sex worker in the adjacent window swiftly and forcefully reprimanded me for it. “No cameras! It is not allowed!”
I knew that no one is supposed to take pictures of the sex workers to respect their privacy. Their clients would probably not be too happy about snap-happy tourists roaming around either. There is even an alleyway painted with a huge mural adorned with the hashtag #nof***ingphotos.
I thought that my picture would be allowed because I had not included any identifiable features of the wall the red light was attached to. But rules are rules and I had broken the most important one in the RLD.
At a panel discussion on ethics at the ODI a few months ago, a policy expert at the organisation said that is important not just to think about ethics in the context of London where the ODI is headquartered but in the context of the UK as a whole. We need to think about how we incorporate regional differences. My Dutch blunder brought those words back to my mind.
Attitudes towards privacy are as individual as the people that hold them. Those attitudes are formed and informed by their experiences, values, principles and surroundings. I know of a well-informed media professional who point blank refuses to use Whatsapp because it is part of the Facebook family of apps. I also know of a marketing professional who is happy to sign up to apps and social media platforms with barely a cursory glance at the terms and conditions because “they already have all of our data anyway.”
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