RE: Question for the Legal team ...

["Mark Hetherington" <mark.egroups@xxxxxxx>]

> I have a camera outside my front door and want to publish pictures on
to a
> website when motion is detected.  No problem with the technology side
but
> is there some data protection act implications.

AIUI, there is no legal issue with it. The might be certain legal
implications if you intend to store and further publish the images but
transient real time publication on a website would not really be covered by
this.

> Do I need to display a sign about there being camera or something?

AIUI, there is no requirement to clearly indicate the fact that there is a
video recording in progress of a private property. Quite often, the only
reason commercial premises (e.g. petrol stations) publish the fact is to
deter criminal acts rather than to comply with data protection provisions
and various places place signage when there is no such recording.

The company I work for has a number of security cameras and there is no
requirement for them to let a would be trespasser know this fact. Some of
the cameras would also display areas of the public road to the front of the
building, the pub next door and the fields behind. All is police, alarm
company and insurance company approved so I would imagine any legal issues
would have been mentioned during the many checks that were made.

A number of firms employ cameras within offices watching employees without
being required to display notification to staff. The Traffic Master cameras
have no obvious indication of their information transmission capabilities
but they appear in increasing numbers throughout the country.

To be honest, AFAIK, private recordings in this form are not clearly
defined
under law so until a case is brought before a court, it is unlikely that
any
ruling would be made. Since various other people have been doing similar
things for many years and there are some public services showing real time
web feeds without notification, I cannot see a case against you being
sought
or being successful. As an example, AFAIK, there are no signs in Trafalgar
Sqaure telling the public they are also on a web cam, there definitely are
not at the local resevoir which also has a number of web cams and archive
pictures for every 10 minutes since they began. They also have no obvious
DPR registration.

The most important provisions of DPA are protection of the storage of
personal data. To all intents and purposes, you are not storing the data
and
you are not storing or processing personal data in any event.

HTH

Mark.