With the Federal Government proposing a statutory tort of interference with privacy a story about homeowner pointing CCTV into neighbours backyard
October 17, 2024 |
NIne News reports in ‘Am I justified?’: Homeowner installs CCTV camera pointing straight into neighbour’s backyard one homeowner installing a camera pointing into a neighbour’s yard. At the moment the legal options are cumbersome and generally ineffective. There is no tort of harassment and it would be difficult to successfully argue nuisance and not possible to argue trespass. A tort of interference with privacy would however deal with such egregious conduct. As the story makes clear the Privacy Act does not apply. No so in the UK where the Information Commissioner does have powers and has issued a guidance as to the placement of CCTVs. The Commissioner has stated in summary that:
Where possible owners should position their cameras to only capture their own property. However, if this isn’t possible and the CCTV captures someone else’s property, a public area or communal space, then data protection law applies. This is because CCTV can capture images and voices of other people, and this counts as their personal information.
It is not theoretical. In 2021 the UK in Dr Mary Fairhurst -v- Mr Jon Woodard an Oxford County Court ordered the defendant to pay 100,000 pounds for breach of the Data Protection Act in collecting data about the plaintiff through a camera.
The Nine story provides: