The recent press coverage of the CCTV ‘peeping toms’ has once again raised concerns over privacy issues despite the use of CCTV having proven benefits in preventing crime and bringing criminals to justice.
In this instance two CCTV operators working for Sefton Council were jailed last week for their part in the training of a CCTV camera, normally used as part of the Council’s street safety effort, to view a woman in the privacy of her own home over a period of some hours in November 2004. What they viewed was, to say the least, very personal. A further operator, the team leader, was sentenced to two hundred hours community service after he admitted that while he had not seen the camera images of the woman he had failed to report the misuse of the cameras. In summing up, Judge Clifton concluded that their voyeuristic conduct had had a ‘harrowing effect’ and destroyed the self confidence of the woman concerned.
Whilst the case of the ‘peeping toms’ is in the extreme, it once again demonstrates that businesses must do more to ensure compliance with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the "Act") in its CCTV activities if it is to prevent misuse of its CCTV systems. Although the activities described here were not prevented, the putting in place of adequate data protection policies and procedures along with on-going staff training should in many cases ensure not only compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998, but avoid your business in publicity you most certainly don’t need.
Where a business operates more sophisticated CCTV systems "for anything other than the most basic of surveillance" then your CCTV system may be caught by the Data Protection Act 1998 (the "Act").
Accordingly we would reiterate the importance of:
- putting a compliance policy in place which clearly states how data should be dealt with;
- making sure employees are familiar with the policy and trained appropriately; and
- carrying out regular reviews of procedures and processes which involve personal data to ensure you comply with the Act.
Disclaimer
The material contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. Readers should not act on the basis of the information in this article without taking appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.
© MacRoberts 2006