Camera phone backlash in the US

One of America's largest mobile telephone suppliers has bowed to the privacy fears of corporate clients and removed the digital camera from its best-selling handset.

Sprint PCS said its Treo 600 - one of the new generation of telephones with tiny cameras built in to the handset - would now be available in a special, camera-less edition for large corporate and Government clients.

A backlash is hitting camera phones, amid complaints that they are a gift to industrial spies, exam cheats and voyeurs. Many large corporations, from carmakers to computer firms, already ban camera phones from their buildings.