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Man raises privacy concerns after car dealership employee turns off his dashcams
- jtokoph 8y agoYou could argue that the owner was invading the dealership employee privacy by sending in a covert recording device.
- tantalor 8y agoPrivate surveillance e.g. nanny cams are legal in USA and Canada. https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/rise-of-private-surveillance-cameras-point-to-legal-limbo https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/rise-of-private-surveill...
- mulmen 8y agoOnly in certain applications.
- chabes 8y agoDash cams are not covert..
- perl4ever 8y agoBased on the photo in the article, it seems like it was not covert. If it was covert, how could they have turned it off? I would certainly acknowledge that the dealership should be notified that it was recording, but it doesn't seem clear that anything was sprung on them.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sonnyblarney 8y agoSeems like the privacy rights of the dealership and their workers have been transgressed.
- DKnoll 8y agoIn what way?
- colechristensen 8y agoThere was no expectation of being recorded on the job. Car maintenance and repair isn't performance art. The recording was done secretly. If you're an employee whose every action is going to be broadcast to the world, your job gets a whole lot worse. You have to start acting like a public face of the company. The guy making the videos would be a good customer to fire.
- DKnoll 8y agoI agree, I would fire the customer. That said I was asking OP what privacy laws he thinks were violated.
- Steko 8y agoAs an example if it recorded audio (I'd guess not) then recording a private conversation between two mechanics would presumably fail the one party consent standard in Canada. I'm not sure if video only has the same standard but it may.
- DKnoll 8y agoIt's single party consent, the party recording doesn't have to be present. If at least one of the people present at any time are aware of the recording device they grant consent by choosing to work on the vehicle, the same way you grant consent to recording by walking on the premises of a business with overt cameras. Thanks, this is the discussion I was looking to have. I just have an interest in privacy law, I am not advocating what the person in the article did.
- colechristensen 8y ago
- matte_black 8y agoThis is standard practice at most dealers now. You do NOT need video surveillance of your vehicle while it’s being repaired.
- cannonedhamster 8y agoWhy not? You're not allowed in the bays for "safety reasons" and numerous times covert recording devices have found shady business practices. Workers routinely have monitoring software on their workplace computers. Car dealerships are notorious for ripping people off. You're also not allowed to destroy someone else's property, which the video was, and you're definitely not allowed to go through someone else's property.
- tobtoh 8y agoAs an employee, you consented to be monitored at work by your employer when you signed your workplace agreements. The mechanic has not. However, destroying the video files is inappropriate.
- colechristensen 8y agoSet expectations. Tell them you're going to do it, and when they offer for you to take your business elsewhere, tell them too. The problem is doing it in secret.
- Linell 8y agoWhy not? Can’t you imagine a scenario in which something happens to your car in the dealerships custody that you’d like to have video footage of?
- mc32 8y agoThis isn’t a privacy concern, it’s rather a trust concern. He may not trust the mechanics. On the other hand, I can see the mechanics having a privacy concern, unless he made them sign some legalise along the lines of allowing him to record them while they serviced the vehicle.
- cannonedhamster 8y agoTypically the batteries on these devices don't last very long unless it's hooked to the car battery. There's zero reason for the mechanic to go through the property of a client. I'd sue the hell out of that company for doing that. It would be similar to an employee at a computer store going through your computer looking for racy photos. That's not their job. Disconnecting the camera would make me never bring my car to that place again as I wouldn't trust the mechanic.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- cortesoft 8y agoNot sure where you work, but would you be ok if your employer wanted to hook up a video camera to watch you work all day?
- mc32 8y agoEven then you need to give your employer consent to record you via whatever contract you sign with them.
- bluejekyll 8y agoWork at a big company? We have video cameras on every floor, at every entrance, and ones that generally can capture the view of nearly everyone’s desk (one that captures multiple aisles not specific desks). These are only used if there are “security” reasons to review them, in theory.
- 8y ago
- user982 8y agoThere have been a number of headlines resulting from dashcams catching mechanics joyriding or otherwise abusing cars after they have been dropped off. Here is an example (also from Canada) that went viral last year: https://jalopnik.com/canadian-mercedes-dealership-caught-on-dashcam-taking-c-1825054515 https://jalopnik.com/canadian-mercedes-dealership-caught-on-...
- krn 8y agoTo everyone claiming, that an employee has a right not to be recorded when working: in practice, he doesn't. There are security cameras on every floor in every office building. There are security cameras in every bar, restaurant, and gas station. And there are security cameras in every dealership, too.
- wolph 8y agoNo there are not cameras on every floor of every office building. It might be different for where you live but over here (the Netherlands) you can't needlessly film people. As an employer you cannot film your employees unless they have explicitly signed a contract that includes camera surveillance. Additionally you are only allowed to use cameras for security purposes if you can make a case that there is no other way to protect yourself. And before you're in view of any camera it must have been stated explicitly, or the cameras must be obvious before you're being filmed.
- usaphp 8y agoDon't you think there is a difference between being recorded by your employer since you have signed a contract with them which probably has those points in it, and a random person you never met before recording you without you knowing about it?
- krn 8y agoRandom people you never met before are recording you with their dashcams all the time in public places. If it was a problem at the dealership, the car owner should have been asked to turn off the dashcam before presenting the car, and no car should have been accepted for the service with the dashcam on.
- usaphp 8y ago> Random people you never met before are recording you with their dashcams all the time in public places But dealership is not a public place.
- Confiks 8y ago
- Aeolun 8y agoI’m honestly more concerned for the mechanic :/
- steve_taylor 8y ago> "If the technician does decide that they want it off, we would notify the customer that it is going to be turned off … because we are totally transparent," That’s hilarious.
- cordonbleu 8y ago["If the technician does decide that they want it off, we would notify the customer that it is going to be turned off … because we are totally transparent," Safonov said.] Turning off a security measure that protects property and documents that service billed actually did occur is not an indicator of procedural transparency.