Private individualPrivate person

What happened

The Belgian DPA (APD/GBA) imposed a fine of € 1500 on a private individual for the unlawful filming of public roads and private property of third parties with surveillance cameras, and for illegally sharing images taken from this system in breach of Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. There were legitimate interests for the defendants to install surveillance cameras to protect their own private property. But the way those surveillance cameras were positioned and the fact that they were constantly monitoring was not deemed necessary to safeguard those legitimate interests. The DPA moreover found the interests of the defendants to process personal data through the surveillance cameras to be overridden by the interests of the complainants and other data subjects. On the contrary, the taking of a one-off photograph with a smartphone, as a direct response to seeing an alleged offence, was seen as constituting a lawful processing within the meaning of Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR.

Summary from the GDPRhub page for this decision, written by its volunteers, not by Fino. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Rules involved

• Art. 6Lawfulness of processingRead →
• Art. 25Data protection by design and by defaultRead →

• Accountability
• Unlawful processing