Rav Ratzon Arussi, the rav of Kiryat Ono, paskened that one cannot take the photograph of another person without his knowledge nor without his permission.
There are time, Rav Arussi says, that a person is in some sort of posture or in some sort of position that if caught on camera would not be flattering, or might even be insulting or embarrassing. Immortalizing that moment with a picture is what the Torah calls in Iyov, "do not let unrighteousness dwell in your tents". Showing that picture to other people and sharing it and spreading it around is motzi shem ra and rechilus.
Rav Arussi commented that at a community event there was a meal and some people took out their phones and started taking pictures and videos - while other people are eating and stretching out to get food or drink. Rav Arussi said that he got up and told them that we have to decide if right now we want to eat or to photograph. People dont want to be photographed eating or reaching over, so either we are photographing and people know to sit patiently and not eat or we are eating and no pictures so people can sit comfortably and eat. The pictures at events catch people in very unflattering and compromising positions.
Everybody nowadays is holding cameras in their phones. It is nice that we wont to immortalize moments with pictures and videos, but people must ask the person in charge of the event or the baal simcha if it ok to do so. Many sins come from this.
source: Kol Hai News
In general I agree with the concept (Rav Arussi does not need my agreement), though the reality is so much more complicated. Today's culture has many of us recording, whether with video or with still images, nearly everything that happens to us or nearly every event we go to.....
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