Allan All: there is no justification for barring video surveillance in healthcare facilities

WALLESS Associate, data protection specialist Allan All disagrees with the recent opinion of the Data Protection Inspectorate that the use of CCTV cameras in healthcare institutions is illegal because the recordings contain people’s health data and there is no legal basis for this.

The view that a healthcare institution must collect consent from individuals to make video recordings, or that the legislator must regulate the use of CCTV in the healthcare sector, is too conservative and a radical interpretation of the General Data Protection Regulation.

According to Allan All, the purpose of the processing of personal data, why the personal data are processed and which data are necessary for the purpose are crucial. People’s health data such as wearing glasses or using a wheelchair are not processed for CCTV purposes, as this is not the purpose of CCTV in healthcare institutions.

If a healthcare institution has installed CCTV cameras for the purpose of protecting the property, rights and persons present in the institution, and the cameras only record in common areas (e.g. corridors, lobbies, entrances), the institution should be able to rely on its legitimate interest and the data recorded in the field of view of the camera should not fall under the protection of special categories of personal data.

Read further here: https://rb.gy/0jacw1