Privateness Regulation
Coldplay live performance scandal reveals potential troubles with expertise
August 14, 2025, 11:52 am CDT
Chris Martin of Coldplay performs on the Nissan Stadium on July 22, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photograph by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Pictures)
Know-how can get folks into bother, as evidenced by final month’s sticky scenario at a Coldplay live performance in Massachusetts.
Through the July 16 live performance close to Boston, lead singer Chris Martin was in the midst of the band’s “kiss cam” phase the place they panned to loving {couples} within the crowd after they occurred to catch Andy Byron, the married CEO of tech firm Astronomer, along with his arms round Kristin Cabot. Cabot was Astronomer’s chief folks officer and never Byron’s spouse.
After the pair realized they had been on the jumbotron and jumped aside, Martin reportedly joked that “both they’re having an affair, or they’re simply very shy.” A video of the incident went viral, main viewers on the web to rapidly uncover their identities.
Within the fallout, Astronomer introduced it had positioned Byron on depart. He later resigned, as did Cabot. “Our leaders are anticipated to set the usual in each conduct and accountability, and just lately, that customary was not met,” the corporate stated in an announcement.
When contemplating the authorized implications of those conditions, Jeffrey Bellin, a professor at Vanderbilt Regulation Faculty, says developments in expertise “could be good or dangerous relying on the scenario and perspective.”
“The flexibility to broadcast and observe correct info is commonly a constructive improvement,” says Bellin, who teaches prison legislation, prison process and proof. Nevertheless, he notes that this makes it tough to manage, “which might result in embarrassing revelations—and worse.”
Cellphone location monitoring, textual content messaging and surveillance cameras are among the many applied sciences that attorneys have used to ascertain details, places and occasions in prison and different authorized issues. Information from good gadgets, together with wearable health trackers and doorbell cameras, additionally more and more has turn into essential proof.
In a single high-profile case, prosecutors offered each cellphone information and safety digicam footage as proof in opposition to Aaron Hernandez, the previous NFL star who was in the end convicted of killing buddy Odin Lloyd in 2015. In one other, cellphone video performed a job within the 2023 conviction of Alex Murdaugh, a once-prominent South Carolina lawyer who murdered his spouse and son.
Bellin emphasizes that attorneys have to be aware of the methods expertise and information assortment “can corroborate or debunk their consumer’s tales.”
Chief Anthony Holloway shares an identical perspective from the place he sits within the St. Petersburg Police Division in Florida. In recent times, he says extra folks—and particularly youngsters and younger adults—brag on social media about stealing automobiles.
“What they do after they steal all these [cars], they may submit on Fb all of the keys and key fobs,” says Holloway, the chair of the ABA Felony Justice Part’s Regulation Enforcement Committee. “It actually helps us with closing circumstances out.”
Holloway sees folks submit images of themselves with medicine or weapons on social media, which he additionally makes use of to make arrests.
“What it comes right down to is folks simply get so snug posting issues,” Holloway says. “It’s now a easy: Take an image and submit it. However generally it’s good to maintain no matter you’re doing non-public.”
Different dangers
Different authorized points might come up from rising developments in and reliance on expertise.
When folks use ChatGPT or different AI instruments, they could possibly be creating paperwork which are topic to discovery in future litigation, says Stephen Embry, a Kentucky lawyer and the writer of the TechLaw Crossroads weblog. He wrote in regards to the potential dangers after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated publicly in July that ChatGPT conversations shouldn’t have authorized confidentiality protections.
Embry notes that folks didn’t instantly consider emails, textual content messages or Slack messages as communication that could possibly be discoverable both.
“What it comes right down to is folks simply get so snug posting issues,” says Chief Anthony Holloway within the St. Petersburg Police Division in Florida. “It’s now a easy: Take an image and submit it. However generally it’s good to maintain no matter you’re doing non-public.”
“Nevertheless it was, and it has created an entire new trade of e-discovery suppliers and consultants,” says Embry, a previous chair of the ABA Regulation Observe Division. He is also a member of the ABA Techshow 2026 Board.
“That’s one space that’s going to be impactful, notably as persons are utilizing these generative AI instruments for all types of issues, together with digital remedy,” he provides. “As a former litigator, I shudder to assume what could also be in a few of these chats backwards and forwards with folks.”
As for the Coldplay live performance scenario, Embry contends that video cameras could possibly be anyplace, together with in seemingly non-public locations like Airbnb leases. The corporate allowed safety cameras in widespread dwelling areas in rental properties till 2024, when it introduced a ban on all indoor cameras. Nevertheless, that doesn’t assure all property house owners will comply with the foundations.
“It creates not solely privateness points for occupants in the event that they do one thing that in the end might turn into related in a prison or civil matter, however it additionally creates potential legal responsibility for the proprietor of the Airbnb,” Embry says.
Folks in public ought to have completely different expectations, Embry provides. They should assume they haven’t any privateness and could possibly be captured on video at any time.
“So, if you wish to do one thing embarrassing or silly, go someplace the place you haven’t any likelihood of being on digicam,” he says. “The Coldplay scenario is a chief instance of individuals not understanding their conduct could possibly be recorded.”
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