jailor:

i dont think yall realise its illegal to take a picture of someone and put it on a social media site without asking their permission and i know thats really cliche of me to say but i mean honestly stop taking pictures of strangers you find attractive and putting it on tumblr

At first I thought this was a tumblr-and-the-internet-are-america-centric thing, but that doesn’t make much sense either?

This is deffinitly not illegal in the UK. 

It is not neccessery right, or a polite thing to do but it is not illegal. If every photo with someone in it who did’t know they were was illegal a lot of photographs would be illegal. (Including personal photos with other people in the background, architectural photos where you cant persuade everyone to move out of the way of the building etc but also for journalistic coverage particularly for protests and similar events and ‘cop watch’ type stuff)

If you are interested in why (and what you can get arrested for): it basically comes down to; if you are in a public place you may take photographs of anything (including people, regardless of age) for any use, including comercial gain.

You cannot under law invade someone privacy if they are in a public space. If you are in a public space but you are taking photos through someones window, that’ll probably be an invasion of privacy, as the person has reasonably expectation to privacy there. Public bathrooms and upskirt type shots come under similar laws – though where the line is drawn is a little vague (because ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’ is vague – but you don’t have it while you’re in a public space according to the law). You can however take photos of buildings/sculpture/etc that is on private land if you are on public land, if you are on their land they can move you off it and in extreme cases prosecute you for trespassing. (private buildings can make there own rules about photography inside: cinemas and galleries do it often)

You can in theory be prosecuted for harasment if you are taking photos of someone in a public space, but you would have to be being fairly invasive and do it more than once. If you are asked to stop taking photos of anyone or anything it is probably a good idea to however. (you can also maybe get done for obstruction but you having a camera has nothing to do with that)

The other laws you may come up against are anti-terrorism laws, and occassionally breach of the peace. Mosty, if you try and record the police doing something the shouldn’t be – you are absolutley allowed to do this. There has been attempts at trying to stop this being legal that have been widely protested. However, it is illegal to take photos for criminal and terrorism purposes (mostly because it’d be illegal to do anything for those purposes – but you can get arrested if people think you are doing so)

In any situation, photographs are you work and you are entitled to protect them. No one can make you delete them, that one is illegal. For people in authority; security guards do not have stop and search powers let alone those to seize you’re equipment. The police can confiscate your stuff but they also cannot delete any of your photos (partly because if you have broken the law they’d be evidence, if you havent done anything wrong they are innoccent pictures). If you are forced to, or need to for personal safety, remove the memory card immediately and don’t take any more photos on it – image recovery programs have a high success rate. 

In europe these rights are covered under freedom of speech in article 10 of the european convention.

The places you can get into trouble are mostly when taking photos not when uploading them to the internet. however, you can come under the data protection act if the photo has any other atatched identification with it.

Again, in most circumstances it is a good idea to stop photographing and/or move if asked to.

(If you are photographing a protest or something similar please look more into this – as this is a time where being asked to move on or stop is something you might want to avoid doing if it is safe to. Journalistic coverage of protests, including photography, is very important and the law protects both your work and your right to take photos at least in theory)