Every week, the Money team answers a reader’s financial problem or consumer dispute – you can email yours to moneyblog@sky.uk. Today’s is…
My neighbour’s Ring doorbell looks out on to my front garden. I don’t do anything in my front garden particularly, but I’ve heard second-hand her talking about what visitors I’ve had. She told another neighbour that she gets “motion notifications” at all hours because of my visitors. Do I have any rights to stop this invasion of privacy?
Anna-Marie in Immingham Lincolnshire
Money live reporter Jess Sharp answers this one…
Thanks for getting in touch, Anna. This is an interesting problem and the short answer is yes, there are some steps you can take.
The longer answer is that it’s very difficult to make your neighbour actually implement any changes.
Under data protection law, anyone with CCTV that captures beyond their property boundary have to follow certain rules.
They must:
- Have a clear legitimate reason for using the CCTV such as protection or crime prevention;
- Make sure the CCTV doesn’t capture more than they need to;
- Let people know they are using CCTV;
- Provide some of the recordings if asked by a person whose image or audio, or both, has been captured;
- Delete the footage regularly or automatically;
- Stop recording a person if they object to being recorded and there’s no legitimate reason to continue recording them.
In most cases, they will not need your consent to film you.
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I spoke to a representative at the Information Commissioner’s Office, who said: “People have the right to enjoy privacy in and around their homes without being recorded by their neighbours’ cameras.
“If a home CCTV or smart doorbell captures images or audio from beyond the property boundary, data protection law applies.”
It sounds like this covers your situation, given your neighbour’s camera captures your front garden, which is presumably not within their property boundary.
So what can you do about it?
The ICO says you should first speak with your neighbour and ask if the device can be repositioned or the settings adjusted to reduce the intrusion.
You should explain your concerns, ask why they are using CCTV and explain why you would like a change to be made.
It’s worth checking if they’re using any filters or privacy blockers to blur your property out of any footage captured.
You can ask to see what they’re recording to ease your concerns.
“Those operating cameras should make sure they only capture what’s necessary, inform people that recording is taking place and handle footage responsibly,” the ICO said.
It added that if the discussion fails to resolve the issue, you can contact the ICO and it may send your neighbour a letter.
But that’s about all they can do.
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It’s highly unlikely that they will take any enforcement action, such as removing the camera, retrieving any footage or forcing them to delete footage.
You can take more serious action if you feel harassed by your neighbour’s CCTV use.
If that’s the case, then the ICO suggests contacting your landlord, local housing officer (if you live in social housing), or the police.
However, it warned that the police are unlikely to consider CCTV as harassment unless the owner has also treated you badly.
As an absolute last resort, you can take legal action through the courts, but this is likely to be costly and time-consuming.
This feature is not intended as financial advice – the aim is to give an overview of the things you should think about. Submit your dilemma or consumer dispute via:
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- Email moneyblog@sky.uk with the subject line “Money Problem”