WomensLaw serves and supports all survivors, no matter their sex or gender.

Legal Information: Wisconsin

Statutes: Wisconsin

View all
Updated: 
November 29, 2023

942.08 Invasion of privacy

(1) In this section:

(a) “Nude or partially nude person” means any human being who has less than fully and opaquely covered genitals, pubic area or buttocks, any female human being who has less than a fully opaque covering over any portion of a breast below the top of the nipple, or any male human being with covered genitals in a discernibly turgid state.

(b) “Private place” means a place where a person may reasonably expect to be safe from being observed without his or her knowledge and consent.

(c) “Surveillance device” means any device, instrument, apparatus, implement, mechanism or contrivance used, designed to be used to observe, or capable of observing, the activities of a person. “Surveillance device” includes a peephole.

(2) Except as provided in sub. (4), whoever does any of the following is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor:

(a) Knowingly installs a surveillance device in any private place, or uses a surveillance device to observe in a private place, with the intent to observe any nude or partially nude person without the consent of the person observed.

(b) For the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification and without the consent of each person who is present in the private place, looks into a private place that is, or is part of, a public accommodation, as defined in s. 134.48(1)(b), and in which a person may reasonably be expected to be nude or partially nude.

(c) For the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification, looks into a private place that is, or is part of, a public accommodation, as defined in s. 134.48(1)(b), and in which a person may reasonably be expected to be nude or partially nude but in which no person is present.

(d) Enters another person’s private property without that person’s consent or enters an enclosed or unenclosed common area of a multiunit dwelling or condominium and looks into any individual’s dwelling unit if all of the following apply:

1. The actor looks into the dwelling unit for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification and with the intent to intrude upon or interfere with an individual’s privacy.

2. The actor looks into a part of the dwelling unit in which an individual is present.

3. The individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in that part of the dwelling unit.

4. The individual does not consent to the actor looking into that part of the dwelling.

(3) Whoever knowingly installs or uses any device, instrument, mechanism, or contrivance to intentionally view, broadcast, or record under the outer clothing of an individual that individual’s genitals, pubic area, breast, or buttocks, including genitals, pubic area, breasts, or buttocks that are covered by undergarments, or to intentionally view, broadcast, or record a body part of an individual that is not otherwise visible, without that individual’s consent, is guilty of a Class I felony.

(4) A person who commits a violation specified under sub. (2) is guilty of a Class I felony if a victim of the violation had not, at the time of the violation, attained the age of 18 years.