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I'm interested to see how the British handle this. There are certainly lots of cameras in London, but I believe they are rather conspicuous. Perhaps this is mor

by tdy721 10y ago

I'm interested to see how the British handle this. There are certainly lots of cameras in London, but I believe they are rather conspicuous. Perhaps this is more about protecting technology than knowledge? Like, it's not about location, it's about the method.

Symbiote 10y ago
I don't know if there's a national list, but one FOI request to one council in London got results. (Most cameras are private, for example in a shop. I don't know if anyone has a list of these.) https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/fixed_cctv_camera_locations_12 https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/fixed_cctv_camera_loc...
dingaling 10y ago
> I'm interested to see how the British handle this CCTV with a view of public areas in the UK are generally labelled with the operating agency's name and contact details. Per the Information Commissioner's Office: You must let people know when they are in an area where a surveillance system is in operation. https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1542/cctv-code-of-practice.pdf https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1542/cc...
vidarh 10y ago
As others have pointed out, most CCTV in the UK is private, and very little of it is networked, so they are rarely accessed. Even so, if you capture the public (you run a shop or other venue that invites the public in, or you have a camera capturing areas beyond your property), you need to label your cameras, and you will be subject to the Data Protection Act (and in a wider context, this is an implementation of the EU Data Protection Directive, so similar laws apply in all EU countries, though details may vary). This means that you need to regularly assess whether there is an objective need for the camera, and register your data controller with the Information Commissioners Office. You'll need to have clear procedures for how you handle the data to ensure compliance. You need to ensure the data is stored securely. You need to ensure the public can't see monitors showing the camera feeds unless the cameras are placed in public in the immediate vincinity (e.g. store cameras with visible monitors are fine; visible monitors with camera feeds from elsewhere is not without ensuring people are not recognisable) You also need to deal with Subject Access Requests - basically anyone can file a request with you to obtain copies of footage of themselves, with minor restrictions, within 40 days, and charging no more than 10 pounds. Public authorities are further subject to Freedom of Information requests. And you need to ensure retention is as short as possible for your intended use. So while we're filmed a lot, there are lots of safeguards and a lot of the restrictions are aimed at making it beneficial to retain as little as possible for as short as possible (e.g. if you only have a 24h loop you save yourself the hassle of anyone filing a subject access notice more than 24h after they believe they were filmed) Doesn't mean I like it, but most of the time when the high amount of UK CCTV is brought up, people have a very skewed idea of the actual impact it has because it seems people have this idea of widespread networked government monitored cameras, while most of them are only rarely ever looked after a crime has occurred.

by tdy721 10y ago

Symbiote 10y ago

I don't know if there's a national list, but one FOI request to one council in London got results. (Most cameras are private, for example in a shop. I don't know if anyone has a list of these.) https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/fixed_cctv_camera_locations_12 https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/fixed_cctv_camera_loc...

dingaling 10y ago

> I'm interested to see how the British handle this CCTV with a view of public areas in the UK are generally labelled with the operating agency's name and contact details. Per the Information Commissioner's Office: You must let people know when they are in an area where a surveillance system is in operation. https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1542/cctv-code-of-practice.pdf https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1542/cc...

vidarh 10y ago

As others have pointed out, most CCTV in the UK is private, and very little of it is networked, so they are rarely accessed. Even so, if you capture the public (you run a shop or other venue that invites the public in, or you have a camera capturing areas beyond your property), you need to label your cameras, and you will be subject to the Data Protection Act (and in a wider context, this is an implementation of the EU Data Protection Directive, so similar laws apply in all EU countries, though details may vary). This means that you need to regularly assess whether there is an objective need for the camera, and register your data controller with the Information Commissioners Office. You'll need to have clear procedures for how you handle the data to ensure compliance. You need to ensure the data is stored securely. You need to ensure the public can't see monitors showing the camera feeds unless the cameras are placed in public in the immediate vincinity (e.g. store cameras with visible monitors are fine; visible monitors with camera feeds from elsewhere is not without ensuring people are not recognisable) You also need to deal with Subject Access Requests - basically anyone can file a request with you to obtain copies of footage of themselves, with minor restrictions, within 40 days, and charging no more than 10 pounds. Public authorities are further subject to Freedom of Information requests. And you need to ensure retention is as short as possible for your intended use. So while we're filmed a lot, there are lots of safeguards and a lot of the restrictions are aimed at making it beneficial to retain as little as possible for as short as possible (e.g. if you only have a 24h loop you save yourself the hassle of anyone filing a subject access notice more than 24h after they believe they were filmed) Doesn't mean I like it, but most of the time when the high amount of UK CCTV is brought up, people have a very skewed idea of the actual impact it has because it seems people have this idea of widespread networked government monitored cameras, while most of them are only rarely ever looked after a crime has occurred.