Unfortunately, we soon see the dark side of every door that technology opens before us. Of course, this is not about emerging devices or technologies, but due to malicious people. For example, Apple’s AirTag device, which allows you to easily find your belongings, was used in areas such as automobile theft. Or, with the arrival of contactless payment convenience, we have seen that card information is easily obtained.
However, a privacy-violating problem that emerged in Japan in the early 2000s led to the fact that smartphones in the country could not turn down the shutter sound when taking screenshots or taking pictures, even in silent mode.
What exactly was this problem?
The J-SH04 model, which was launched in Japan in 2000 by J-Phone, now known as SoftBank, was the beginning of these discussions. It was the first time that a camera integrated into the phone was seen, and the developments were not limited to this. J-Phone also launched the Sha-Mail service soon after.
This service went beyond the written one and provided video messaging, which made it easier to transfer images.
When people got used to this technology, stealth shots began to come to the fore in Japan.
This situation was coming to the fore day by day, especially in regions of Japan where public transportation is incredibly crowded and busy at certain hours. Already after the camera phone was put on sale, this issue started to be discussed not long after.
Again, before long, a step was taken to prevent this problem.
According to a representative from the J-Phone (now SoftBank) we mentioned, when the company launched the phone we just mentioned, phone manufacturers were asked to keep the shutter sound open, untouchable.
The purpose of this is quite clear; prevent covert shootings in public, on public transport, and elsewhere.
Even Apple paid attention to this in the production of iPhones made for Japan.
For this reason, if you buy an iPhone from Japan, the shutter sound will not go away even when you put the phone in vibrate mode. But the shutter sounds, which will not be strange in Japan, can make you look like a tourist here and in Europe.
It’s a subject that the vast majority misunderstand: This is not a legal requirement.
Rather, it is a situation that emerged as a result of the cooperation of phone manufacturers upon a request arising from the criticality of the events in the middle.
So, can we say that it solved the problem?
Not really. It was not expected to solve it by root anyway, but buying the iPhone from abroad instead of buying it from Japan made it possible to overcome this problem. It is also known that many people who are disturbed by sound resort to this method. On the other hand, you may think that this obstacle can be overcome with different applications such as Snapchat or Instagram, but those applications also have a shutter sound.
What remains are third-party applications that lower the quality while lowering the volume. But as we said, although this was a heavy blow for malicious people, it was not a hindrance. In fact, rather than being a hindrance, it caused such camera applications to become more common.
For these reasons, the camera sound cannot be turned off in the vast majority of smartphones (including iPhones) produced for the Japanese market.
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