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The poster must indicate the name and telephone number of the data protection delegate (DPO): Titlecontent if the establishment is significant (for example: large area).

Surveillance cameras on public roads and in places open to the public

You have noticed cameras in your city and you wonder if it’s legal ? You were filmed and you want to know how to consult the images ? We present the rules to know about the cameras installed on the public highway (street, road. ) and places open to the public (station, town hall, trade. )).

Which can film the public highway or a place open to the public ?

Public authorities

Answer successive questions and answers will appear automatically

Public highway

Public authorities (for example, the mayor) can film the public highway For one of the following reasons:

• Protection of Public buildings and installations and their surroundings
• Backup of installations useful for National Defense
• Regulation of transport flow
• Finding of offenses to traffic rules
• Prevention of damage to security of people and goods in places particularly exposed to Risks of aggression of theft or drug trafficking
• Prevention of terrorism acts: Titlecontent
• Prevention of natural or technological risks
• Rescue for people and defense againstfire
• Safety of the public facilities in the public in amusement parks
• Compliance with the obligation to have a Civil liability insurance For Driving a motor vehicle
• Prevention and observation of an offense linked to the abandonment of garbage, waste, materials or other objects

The cameras should not allow you to view the entrance and the interior of the residential buildings.

Place or establishment open to the public

Public authorities can film a place or one establishment open to the public For protect the immediate surroundings of businesses in the places exposed to risks of aggression or theft.

Company, public establishment

A company or a public establishment can film immediate surroundings of its buildings and installations in the places exposed to Terrorism acts: Titlecontent .

Trader

A merchant can film the public highway to ensure the protection of immediate surroundings of its buildings and installations, in the places exposed to risks of aggression or theft or acts of terrorism. : Titlecontent

He must first inform the mayor from the community.

External cameras must be disconnected from the cameras installed inside to prevent the merchant from having access to the recorded images.

Is an authorization necessary ?

Public authorities (mayor. ) or professionals (merchant, transport company. )) must obtain an authorization from the prefect Before filming the public highway and the places open to the public.

A specific authorization is to be asked of the CNIL: Titlecontent in the event of a device installed to identify the people (Camera associated with a biometric system)).

How are you informed that there is a camera ?

A poster (or a sign), comprising a Pictogram representing a camera, must indicate the existence of the video protection system.

The poster must be present permanently in the place concerned.

She must be understandable.

The poster must indicate the name and telephone number of the data protection delegate (DPO): Titlecontent if the establishment is significant (for example: large area).

How long the images are kept ?

Image conservation is 1 month maximum Unless current legal proceedings.

How to ask to view images ?

If you have been filmed, you can ask and verify their destruction within the period fixed by the prefect.

Address your request to the manager of the video protection system.

In general, it is the data protection delegate (DPO): Titlecontent .

His name and phone number are indicated on the poster signaling the existence of the video protection system.

Access to images is a right if you have been filmed.

However, it can be denied for the following reasons : state security, defense, public security, during an in progress judicial investigation or to protect the secrecy of the privacy of other people.

How to do in case of difficulties ?

Departmental video protection commission

You can contact the departmental video protection commission in the event of difficulty linked to the operation of the video protection system.

The request is to be sent by mail.

The Commission sits at the prefecture.

Videosurveillance installed in a home for domestic use (summary)

The provisions of the Camera law must be respected as soon as a video system is installed and used for the purpose of Monitoring and control. In summary.

What can we film ?

It is forbidden to film the public highway. The image manager must ensure that his video surveillance system is properly oriented and that the images collected are in accordance with the various provisions of the Camera law:

• We must ensure that the cameras are mainly directed towards the ownership of the user manager. If the sidewalk/the public highway appears on the images, this must be limited to the strict minimum.
• No image that can harm a person’s privacy can be collected. The same goes for any image aimed at collecting information relating to his personal opinions, his ethnic or social origin, his sex life or his state of health.
• The hidden use of surveillance cameras is prohibited. Filling a person without having previously received their authorization is considered to be such and is therefore punishable. The law, however, assimilates to a prior authorization to enter a place where a pictogram indicates the presence of video surveillance.

Administrative obligations

• Pictogram:
  Appose a specific pictogram (10×15 cm) to the entrance to your home. The law on the protection of privacy prohibits filming someone without their prior consent. Entering a place where a pictogram is visibly affixed is considered a tacit assent. Certain information relating to the controller (name and contact details) must be present on the pictogram in order to allow any person filmed to get in touch with the latter.
• Image shelf life
  The images cannot be kept for more than a month unless they reveal an offense, damage or identify an author, a witness, a victim, .
• Access to images
  Filmed persons have a right of access to images and can send a reasoned request to the controller. Only the controller or the person acting under his responsibility can have access to the images. The latter are subject to a duty of discretion relating to the personal data that the images could have revealed. The images can however be transmitted from initiative to the police or to the judicial authorities when facts which may constitute an offense are noted. They must be communicated to them when they are requested within the framework of their judicial or administrative police missions.
• No declaration to the Privacy Commission
  When you place fixed cameras in a closed place not accessible to the public (inside the house) and these are used for personal or domestic purposes, you should not effect a declaration to the Commission of the private life.
• Special case: the surveillance camera in the garden
  If you, however, install a system of cameras in your garden with a purpose of “surveillance and control”, you must then make a thematic declaration and affix a pictogram at the entrance to your home. The Privacy Commission indeed interprets the concept of “personal or domestic purposes” restrictively, the aforementioned exception does not apply.

Legislation

Consult the website of the Privacy Commission (link) to have access to all the provisions of the Camera law.