The law is there to keep society in check, discovering boundaries between right and wrong, safe and dangerous. But there’s a gray space between the cracks of the law where things can turn creepy.
There are some things, nice and tidy within the confines of the law, that feel strangely odd, invasive, or even just creepy. These loopholes and societal quirks permit things that could make your skin crawl, but which don’t involve breaking any laws.
Here are the strange realm of creepy things that are, inexplicably, completely legal.
Having Human Bones
You don’t need a medical license to start a bone collection. It is legal in most US states to buy, sell, and keep human bones. Provided the remains weren’t obtained illegally (like by grave-robbing) and aren’t Native American (due to certain protective legislation), the sale is largely unregulated.
That genuine human skull you come across in the freak show shop or online? It might become your new paperweight legally.
Stalking Someone with a GPS Device
Using GPS trackers to follow someone without their consent is disturbingly easy, and often still legal in many places. Tiny devices like AirTags and other GPS trackers can be hidden in cars, bags, or clothing, allowing a stalker to monitor someone’s every move in real time.
While several U.S. states have laws against unauthorized tracking, there’s no universal federal ban, leaving legal loopholes that abusers exploit. The rise of small, affordable trackers has made this kind of surveillance more common, turning technology meant for convenience into a powerful tool for invasion of privacy.
Ownership and a severe intrusion into privacy are often closely linked in certain jurisdictions.
Developing a “Digital Ghost” of Someone Who Has Passed Away
Technology companies can mine an individual’s online life, tweets, texts, and emails to create AI-powered chatbots that mimic their speech patterns.
There are a few laws governing post-mortem digital replication, which leaves a big playground for creating spooky, lifelike impersonators of the dead.
Taking Pictures of Strangers in Public
As long as you are in a public area where people have no reasonable expectation of privacy, it’s generally okay to photograph or record video of strangers without their permission.
This would include parks, sidewalks, and public plazas. Even though most camera-wielding individuals have benign motives, this policy does allow for disconcerting behavior, such as someone taking a photo of you or your children from afar in a park.
Data Brokering Your Personal Data
You know all that data you’ve exposed on the internet? Your browser history, location history, shopping history, and social media engagement are all commodities.
Data brokers are companies that legally collect this information, package it, and sell it to other companies without your direct consent for each transaction.
For example, companies can collect information about what you watch (like cat videos) and what you buy (like antacids), then sell or share that data with advertisers or data brokers.
“Cuffing Season” Pet Fostering
A sad trend in animal shelters: people “foster” an animal during the cold winter months, then return the animal when spring arrives and their social life gets busy.
The temporary acquaintance is emotionally unsettling and stressful for the animal, who attaches only to be spurned. While legal and oftentimes presented as “doing a good deed,” it’s a sinister use of a living creature for short-term emotional satisfaction.
Following Someone (to a Point)
It is not illegal, but the legal standard appears to require a pattern of conduct that causes a credible fear or threat. Following someone around the block or “accidentally” showing up at the same coffee shop every day will not rise to the level of stalking in the legal context, even if it’s extremely creepy for the victim.
Marrying Your First Cousin
While it might be the punchline to a few jokes, marrying a first cousin is actually legal in about 20 US states, including New York, California, and Colorado. In a few more states, it is legal but with certain restrictions, including genetic counseling.
While it’s a cultural taboo in many parts of the country, it remains a legal option for family reunification.
Legally Changing Your Name to Almost Anything
Desire to be referred to as Captain Awesome, Darth Vader, or your own social security number? Usually, you may. As long as you’re not doing so in the hopes of committing fraud, fleeing debt, or choosing a name intended to offend, the courts are actually quite flexible.
The law allows you to take on an identity that would otherwise be, at best, a bizarre and confusing icebreaker.
Residing with a Corpse
In most states, there is a statute that requires the reporting of deaths. If someone dies and you don’t report it, merely staying with the body usually isn’t immediately a crime, at least for a short period.
The actual crimes that eventually result from it are more about illegal disposal of a corpse without a license or failure to report, not the creepy crime of living among the dead.
Creating and Selling “Reborn Dolls”
Reborn dolls are hyper-realistic baby dolls, created by artists to resemble a real baby down to the smallest details, such as veins, acne, and weight. Some even look like a customer’s deceased child.
While it’s reassuring to some, the uncanny valley effect is strong, and the website selling these eerily realistic “babies” is a rabbit hole of creepiness.
Competitive Eating
Stuffing giant quantities of food into your mouth in the shortest amount of time possible for entertainment is legal and televised.
Watching someone dunk hot dogs by the dozens in water and force them down their throat in a matter of minutes pushes the limits of the human body in a way that is both fascinating and disgusting.
Extreme Body Modification
Although there are a few limits and prohibitions, adults are free to pursue body extremes legally. This is far beyond tattoos and piercings. We’re talking about things like splitting your tongue, subdermal implants to have “horns” grown, pointed “elf”-shaped ears, and eyeball tattoos.
These are legal, but questionable, ways to transform your body for the better into something others might find terrifying.
Being a “Pickup Artist”
The “pickup artist” subculture teaches men systematic, often manipulative, methods of targeting and bedding women.
Although the methods they use, including “negging” (backhanded compliments) and psychological manipulation to encourage emotional dependency, are not illegal, they inhabit a morally and ethically grey area, bringing human contact down to a stalker-like, manufactured game.
Key Takeaways
Many unsettling behaviors remain legal because they fall into gray areas of the law. Things like stalking someone with a GPS tracker, taking photos of strangers in public, or tracking people online through data collection are technically allowed, even though they feel invasive.
Other examples include living with an unreported dead body for a short time, selling personal data, and owning disturbing memorabilia. These actions expose the limits of privacy and moral boundaries in modern society, showing that not everything creepy or unethical is against the law.
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Disclaimer – This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information. It is not intended to be professional advice.
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