Office of the Information and Privacy Commissionery
July 7, 2015

OIPC Guidelines for Video Surveillance by Public Bodies in Newfoundland and Labrador

Information and Privacy Commissioner Ed Ring is pleased to officially release OIPC Guidelines for Video Surveillance by Public Bodies in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Commissioner Ring commented that “the continued proliferation of closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) and the rapidly advancing technology that CCTV employs is a concern for many privacy advocates and other Privacy Commissioners. The increasing presence of these cameras by public bodies has raised privacy concerns about how the personal information gathered by these CCTV systems is collected, used and disclosed, and more fundamentally, whether CCTV cameras are always the right answer to the concerns of public bodies.” Commissioner Ring stated that “these guidelines will help assess whether or not video surveillance is necessary, what locations and times cameras should be in operation, who should be able to view the recordings, how the recordings are stored, how long they are kept, and other considerations necessary to ensure that the use of this technology is compliant with privacy law.”

Guidelines for all public bodies in the use of CCTV (also known as video surveillance) have been in place on the OIPC website since 2005, however these updated guidelines address new technology and the implications that Access to Information and Protection of Privacy, 2015 ( ATIPPA, 2015) has on access and privacy.

After extensive study of national and international trends and usage of CCTV systems, the OIPC prepared this set of guidelines that it encourages all public bodies in Newfoundland and Labrador to follow in order to ensure that any use of CCTV is compliant with ATIPPA, 2015.

For a copy of the OIPC's Guidelines for Video Surveillance by Public Bodies in Newfoundland and Labrador go to www.oipc.nl.ca/pdfs/GuidelinesForVideoSurveillance.pdf .

The OIPC also has specific guidelines for use of CCTV by schools, for a copy of the OIPC's Guidelines for the Use of Video Surveillance in Schools, please go to: www.oipc.nl.ca/resources.htm .

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Media contact:

Ed Ring Information and Privacy Commissioner 709-729-6309 ering@oipc.nl.ca

2015 07 07                              3:00 p.m.