Went to see a bad movie. Trying to remain conscious, I scoped out the theatre and noticed several rather large IR illuminators in the corners of the room, by their faint red glow.
On the one hand it makes a lot of sense for staff to be able to check out what is happening in the seats, since it gives them a chance to react to troublemakers and vandalizers etc.
On the other hand, I would think that most people in the theatre don't imagine that they are being monitored 'in the dark'. So they have some limited 'expectation of privacy', no?
What do you need privacy for in a movie theater? Probably not much, unless you're a couple of teenagers on a date. Then again, maybe you might want to pick your nose or teeth or fix a wardrobe malfunction...
Any potentially embarrassing thing you might do 'in the dark' could make you the target of backroom employee mockery.
No big deal, but purely on technical grounds could this be challenged on privacy grounds?