What’s the Law Around Installing CCTV at Home?
Can I Install CCTV at my Property?
If you own your home then you don’t need permission to install CCTV cameras and equipment.
If you rent your home, you should seek written permission from your landlord before drilling any holes in their building, unless your contract gives you explicit permission to do this.
You must also be responsible for the CCTV system and data you capture.
Government Guidelines
People do have the right to protect their home and property, and CCTV can be used as a security measure where necessary.
As a CCTV owner, responsible use of the system and data is required, and you should ask yourself a few questions before having it installed:
- Why do I need a home CCTV system?
- How many days recording do I need?
- What areas of my property I need to cover?
You should also consider how your CCTV system affects other people, such as your neighbours.
Other People
Sometimes there can be concern from neighbours when CCTV is installed near them, that they are being spied on.
Therefore you should think about the positioning of cameras to ensure minimal intrusion i.e. are the cameras overlooking your neighbour’s gardens, windows, driveways? Using ‘privacy masking’ in any of these situations is recommended.
Privacy masking is built into the recording software and allows you to ‘draw’ a black space over the areas like neighbours windows, garden etc, so that you never record those spaces.
Put up a Sign
Keeping good relations with your neighbours and transparency about your use of CCTV recording equipment, by letting them know about your CCTV system or putting up signs to state that ‘CCTV is in operation’ is highly recommended.
And if your equipment records a public space you must comply with the GDPR.
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
If your CCTV records a public space, e.g. the path or road in front of your house then you must put up a sign to keep within the GDPR.
Under your responsibilities as a CCTV owner you must ensure the data is only used for protecting your property and it should not be stored for any longer than is necessary.
If you do record people in a public space, requests for footage can be made. Individuals have the right to access personal data, therefore requests for footage, verbally or in writing, must be responded to and you must provide a copy of the data within one month.
For more information on this subject please read Guidance on the use of domestic CCTV and this additional guidance from the ICO.
