Lovers should beware of their intimacies in taxis in China as more and more cities in the country are planning to install cameras in taxis, to protect the interests of both drivers and passengers they say.

In southwestern Chongqing Municipality, more than 700 taxis have a new global positioning system (GPS) device, which can take pictures and monitor speech inside the taxi.

"Three pictures of passengers will be taken and sent to the control headquarters when they get in the taxis," said a worker with Gongyun Taxi Company in Chongqing.

The system will help taxi companies to check whether drivers are rude in word or deed, or overcharge or refuse to carry passengers, according to an official surnamed Song with the Chongqing Taxi Public Security office.

The system can also help police bust criminal cases, as many criminals take taxis to enter and flee the scene, Song added.

"I will feel much safer on night shifts as I can report my situation to the control center through the system if driving to a remote place," said a driver surnamed Zhang.

But the use of cameras in taxis has also raised objections.

"In summer days, many women wear few clothes. Will the cameras take pictures of some sensitive body parts?" asked a lady in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province. The city experimented with the first camera in a taxi in January this year.

Liu Pingan, head of Jiwei Law Office in Shaanxi, said taxis were not a complete public venue and there was often a certain degree of intimate relationship between passengers, whose words and deeds were different from what they did in buses.

The installation of cameras in taxis may infringe the privacy of passengers, Liu said.

Thus, passengers should be informed of the cameras and police should ensure that visual data is kept secret to protect passengers' privacy, suggested the lawyer.

In Shenyang, capital city of north-eastern Liaoning Province, about 10,000 taxis have been equipped with the GPS devices. Shenyang is the first city on the Chinese mainland to have launched large-scale installations.

"If the situation in the taxis is normal, pictures of passengers will be automatically deleted. Only when drivers have alerted police will photos be preserved by the system," said Yan Bin, an official of Shenyang Communications Bureau.

In other Chinese cities such as Chengdu in Sichuan and Zhongshan in southern Guangdong, taxi managers are also planning to install cameras in taxis.

(Xinhua News Agency, December 5, 2007)