DO YOU NEED TO DISPLAY WARNING STICKERS?

Official information on the subject is somewhat difficult to come by with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) giving no direct information relating to vehicles.

However there is little doubt that the rules of CCTV apply to the use of data obtained by vehicle mounted camera systems in the same way as those mounted to buildings.

The first distinction to make is that to be affected by the Data Protection Act (DPA) footage obtained by the cameras must be recorded. Vehicle camera systems that are simply used as a reversing or maneuvering aid which do not record footage are not affected.

Dashcams and multi-camera systems whose footage is recorded using SD cards, hard disks or in the cloud are classed as CCTV systems in the eyes of the law.

The ICO website states ‘Images of people are covered by the Data Protection Act, and so is information about people which is derived from images – for example, vehicle registration numbers. Most uses of CCTV by organisations or businesses will be covered by the Act, regardless of the number of cameras or how sophisticated the equipment is.’

Vehicle mounted cameras do record video footage of people and vehicles and therefore are covered by the DPA but what does an operator need to do to ensure they comply with act.

Warning stickers are covered in a separate section of the ICO site and are the easiest method of compliance.

The ICO website says ‘The CCTV operator must let people know they are using CCTV. Signs are the most usual way of doing this. The signs must be clearly visible and readable, and should include the details of the organisation operating the system if not obvious.’

Operators should exercise great caution when publishing videos publicly online using sites such as YouTube. They should also ensure they have control of the data by only buying camera systems that secure the storage media and encrypt the video footage. Preventing drivers from publishing content without the data owners permission.

The penalties for not displaying stickers are unclear with no legal precedence available online. Some commentators state that footage recorded by cameras without the correct stickers displayed could render the footage inadmissible.

Others state that where footage clearly shows a party is to blame for an incident the evidence will be admissible however the operator could be vulnerable to claims for infringing the DPA.

Fleet Focus provide free DPA compliant stickers to all customers who order cameras systems with a recording capability. For more information contact us on 0800 009 3006.

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