Unfortunately, we soon see the dark side of every door that technology opens for us. Of course, this is not about emerging devices or technologies, but because of malicious people. For example, Apple’s AirTag device, which makes it easy to find your belongings, was used in the field of car theft. Or contactless payment With the advent of convenience, we have seen that map information is easy to obtain.

But in Japan An issue that violates privacy in the early 2000s is that smartphones in the country even in silent mode prevented the shutter sound from being muted when taking screenshots or taking photos.

What exactly was this problem?

now in 2000 Softbank released in Japan by J-Phone, known as J-SH04 The mentioned model was the beginning of these discussions. It was the first time that a camera integrated in the phone could be seen, and the developments were not limited to this. J-Phone also launched the Sha-Mail service soon after.

This service goes beyond what is written. video messages This allowed the transfer of images to be made easier.

As people got used to this technology, stealth shooting started to come to the fore in Japan.

This situation was emerging day by day, especially in regions of Japan where public transportation is incredibly busy and crowded at certain hours. Already after the camera phone went on sale not long after that this issue was discussed.

Again, it was not long before a step was taken to avoid this problem.

According to a representative of the J-Phone (now SoftBank) we mentioned, when the company launched the phone we just mentioned, the shutter noise from phone manufacturers inviolable They were asked to keep it open.

The purpose of this is pretty clear; in the municipality, on public transport and in other places prevent stealth shooting.

Even Apple paid attention to this when producing iPhones made for Japan.

For this reason, as a Japanese iPhone Shutter sound even if you put the phone on vibrate. will not disappear. But the shutter sounds, which won’t be strange in Japan, can make you look like a tourist here and in Europe.

It is a subject that the vast majority misunderstand: this is not a legal requirement.

More so, at the request arising from the criticality of the events in the middle, also phone manufacturers as a result of cooperation an emerging situation.

So, can we say it solved the problem?

Not really. Already exterminate It was not expected, but buying the iPhone from abroad instead of Japan solved this problem. It is also known that many people who are disturbed by sound resort to this method. on the other hand Snapchat or Instagram You may think that this obstacle can be overcome with different applications like but there is a shutter sound in those applications.

The back of the third party is cushioned lowering the quality applications remain. But as we said, while this was a heavy blow to ill-wishers, it was not a hindrance. In fact, such camera apps are more than a hindrance to the spread causes.

For these reasons, the camera sound cannot be turned off in the vast majority of smartphones (including iPhones) produced for the Japanese market.