It is common and perfectly legal for people to place surveillance cameras inside their homes, but is it possible to put them on the façade of your building and record the outside?
It is normal to want to improve the safety of the people who live in a property. Even so, you must be aware of what can legally be done to protect the privacy of people walking past or who live nearby.
Can I put surveillance cameras on the façade of my house?
We agree that the façade is yours. It belongs to you. You can put a camera on it. However, you must be extremely careful of what images it captures. You must set the angle of the camera to avoid it recording areas on public streets.
Because, in fact, only the law enforcement authorities are allowed to use cameras that record the exterior in public areas.
Cameras and the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD)
You can find all the information on video surveillance and legitimate interest in carrying it out on the AEPD website (link here).
They refer both to recording in Communities of Property Owners, garages, rights of way and recording using drones. It is important to understand all the information in order to comply with the Regulations.
Permission from the Community of Property Owners
If your video camera is going to record communal areas of the Community of Property Owners, whether this is a passageway, garage or similar, you will have to ask for permission from the Community of Property Owners.
If it is the Community of Property Owners that wishes to install the cameras, they cannot record images of the public street. As the AEPD says on its website: Cameras may only capture communal areas of the community, and may not record images of the public street, except for a minimum strip of the access points to the property. Nor may they capture images of neighbouring land and properties or any other space outside the community. In this latter case, if pivotable cameras and/or cameras with zoom are used, privacy masks must be installed to avoid this recording.
Also, the Community must always put up signs in a visible position informing people that this is an area with video surveillance.
Remember that if you are the owner of a Property managed by Mediterráneo, you can contact your property administrator with your queries through the Mediterráneofree to download by following this link.