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CCTV and the cloakroom
October 9, 2008 – 8:30 pm by Lance MichalsonDo you use CCTV cameras? Are people aware that you are recording their every move? You might be infringing their right to privacy!
Whether or not a person is able to claim that an audio or visual recording is “private“, will depend on whether:
- the person subjectively (from their point of view) believes their recorded actions are private; and
- objectively (from an outsider’s point of view) speaking, society agrees.
Let us look at an example. You monitor your building with CCTV. Your security guard at the entrance cannot legitimately expect that sleeping (or anything else) at his desk is private. If he nevertheless (in his dreams) seriously believes it is private, society will not regard his expectation as reasonable. Therefore, you are entitled to monitor him, as his conduct is not private. However, he may legitimately expect that what he does in the cloakroom falls within the private sphere. Society may well agree. Nevertheless, you may still infringe his right to privacy if you have sound business reasons and there are no legitimate ways for you to record his actions.
If you use CCTV cameras, you must ensure that every person (employees and visitors) whose actions you record agree to the following:
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