Am I allowed to photograph in the street in Réunion Island?

Yes. Taking a photo in a public space is free in France. It is the publication of a recognisable person's image, without their consent, that is regulated.

Do licence plates need to be masked?

Yes. A plate allows the registration holder to be identified indirectly, making it personal data. Kartié does not mask plates on its own — reliable automatic detection only covers faces — but it warns you when it spots one, and you cover it with a finger before publishing.

How do I get a photo of me removed?

Use the "Report this content" button on every post, or write to the contact address given in the app settings. The content is removed while we verify, and within 24 hours at the latest.

2026-08-05

Photographing in public: what you are allowed to do

In France, including Réunion Island, taking a photo in a public space is free. It is PUBLICATION that is regulated: publishing the image of a recognisable person without their consent breaches their image rights, subject to strict exceptions. The practical solution is to mask faces and licence plates before any publication. Kartié masks faces automatically; for plates, it flags them and you cover them with a finger before it goes live.

Taking and publishing are two different acts

French law clearly distinguishes capture from publication.

Photographing a scene in the street is free. Nobody can stop you photographing illegal dumping, a pothole or a building.

Publishing the image of a recognisable person without their authorisation, however, breaches their image rights, protected as part of the right to private life. That is the moment — and only that moment — where the problem arises.

The exceptions, and their limits

A few situations fall outside the principle:

Crowds and group scenes: a person lost in a crowd, not individualised, is not identifiable for image-rights purposes.
Incidental background: a passer-by appearing incidentally in a photo whose subject is manifestly something else.
News reporting: a regulated exception that does not cover an individual's posts on an app.

These exceptions are narrower than people think. A lone, sharp, recognisable passer-by in the foreground of a photo of illegal dumping is not covered by incidental background.

The case of licence plates

A licence plate is personal data: it allows the registration holder to be identified indirectly.

Publishing it amounts to publishing information about a person. That is why mapping services systematically mask plates, and why Kartié asks you to do so before anything goes live.

The practical rule, in one sentence

Photograph the problem, not people. A pothole has no face. Illegal dumping has no licence plate. Neither does a broken street light.

If a person or vehicle is unavoidably in frame, that area must be masked before publication.

How Kartié handles it

The work is split between your phone and our server, each doing what it is genuinely good at.

Faces are found on your phone, by a dedicated detector, then irreversibly pixelated — a coarse pixelation rather than a blur, because a blur can be partially reconstructed by image processing.

Plates and documents are not masked automatically, and we would rather say so plainly than let you assume otherwise. The analysis can tell they are present, not exactly where. When it sees one, the app warns you and you cover it with a finger — one tap places a cover, a second enlarges it.

In every case the app shows you the result and asks you to confirm before it goes live. Publication stays blocked until that check is done.

Finally, only the masked version is kept. The original photo never touches storage, and the file's metadata — including the precise GPS position recorded by your phone — is removed in the process.

If you recognise yourself in a photo

You can request the immediate removal of an image in which you appear, without having to justify yourself. On Kartié, every post carries a "Report this content" button, and a contact email is available in settings. The content is removed while we verify, and within 24 hours at the latest.

Am I allowed to photograph in the street in Réunion Island?: Yes. Taking a photo in a public space is free in France. It is the publication of a recognisable person's image, without their consent, that is regulated.
Do licence plates need to be masked?: Yes. A plate allows the registration holder to be identified indirectly, making it personal data. Kartié does not mask plates on its own — reliable automatic detection only covers faces — but it warns you when it spots one, and you cover it with a finger before publishing.
How do I get a photo of me removed?: Use the "Report this content" button on every post, or write to the contact address given in the app settings. The content is removed while we verify, and within 24 hours at the latest.