Privacy is increasingly more challenging to find in our perpetually online world, as social media overtakes public spaces and the risk of appearing in a stranger’s content ticks up every time you walk into a mall, airport, or restaurant.
It’s an irritating reality, for those of us without the urge to share our lives online, but its ultimately a harmless one. Sure, we may prefer to keep our lives private, but the occasional cameo in a stranger’s video isn’t going to hurt anyone. Except, perhaps, for the paranoid woman partially captured by TikToker Parisz Ox (@parisz.ox) on a recent flight.
The content creator flipped on her camera, mid-flight, in order to check her hair, but the argument that followed made an inadvertent viral moment. It was seemingly sparked by the TikToker’s decision to record herself — and only herself — as the plane began to land, and it encouraged a candid conversation among commenters, and the two women.
It seems the woman who was sitting across the aisle from @parisz.ox is adjacent to fame, and was subsequently disinterested in being captured on camera. She asks the TikToker to end her recording almost as soon as it begins, explaining that she doesn’t want to be featured in the video. The issue? The camera never deviates from the content creator’s face. The woman speaking to the side is never shown on video, but she seems to think that her voice — and only her voice — is more than enough for people to recognize her.
As such, her demands that @parisz.ox stop recording get more adamant as the video goes on. She indicates that it’s rude of @parisz.ox to continue recording after being asked to stop, even though the creator only records her own face and — had the woman not piped up in the first place — her voice would never have featured in the clip.
The argument goes on across two entire videos, as the woman continues to demand that @parisz.ox cease her recording, and @parisz.ox continues to refuse. It seems to be sheer (understandable) stubbornness that keeps the camera recording, by the end, as @parisz.ox refuses to bow to the demands of a self-important stranger.
There are plenty of places where recording is not allowed, but the last decade or so has expanded the public education on public versus private spaces immensely. Anywhere there is no reasonable expectation of privacy is fair game, which puts the camera-shy among us in a strange position. While you’re absolutely in your rights to make a polite request that someone not record you, if you’re in an airport, a mall, a plane, a public business, or even on the sidewalk, you’re not protected from being recorded. You can ask, but if they refuse you’ve got no option other than walking away.
Which is exactly the opposite of what @parisz.ox’s across the aisle neighbor decided to do. Instead of accepting the resounding “no” she was delivered and working to conceal her voice, the woman continues to argue — ensuring that even more of her voice was captured on video. Hilariously, however, it doesn’t seem to have caused an issue. Despite her insistence that she’s famous enough to be recognized, it seems no one watching @parisz.ox’s video can quite put their finger on that voice.