Camera surveillance at organisations
Camera surveillance in or around a shop, catering facility, sports club, school or healthcare institution can help protect property, visitors and personnel. But at the same time it can be a major invasion of the privacy of customers, visitors, employees, students and patients. That is why organisations may only install cameras if they meet a number of conditions.
On this page
Camera surveillance at organisations is subject to a number of general rules. These are set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). There are also (additional) conditions for the use of hidden cameras.
If you are looking for information about camera surveillance to maintain public order, please visit this page: Camera surveillance in public places.
Quick answers
Can my employer use camera images to assess me?
No, this is not allowed. Under certain conditions, your employer may use cameras to protect personnel and property. But your employer may not use these camera images to call employees to account or assess their performance.
Not permitted for another purpose
This is incompatible with the original purpose of using cameras: the protection of personnel and property. In other words, your employer may not simply use images taken for security purposes for any other purpose.
No hidden camera
This does not only apply to the use of camera images. Your employer is also not permitted to use camera images to assess how you do your work if these images were taken using a hidden camera. In most cases, this is too much of an invasion of your privacy.
Your employer is also not permitted to secretly film you for training purposes. Such as mystery shopping with a hidden camera.
Your employer may only use a hidden camera to detect theft or fraud, for example. And then only as a last resort. For other purposes, such as training purposes, a hidden camera is too severe a tool.
Is it okay for me to be filmed by a surveillance camera in a sauna?
Yes, but only in areas where you are not naked.
The starting point is that there should be no camera surveillance in areas where sauna visitors may be naked. This includes changing rooms, shower rooms, toilets, swimming pools and hot tubs, saunas and the areas where visitors enter and leave the saunas.
Filming people who are naked is a major invasion of their privacy. The balance between the interests of the sauna and those of the visitor should under normal circumstances always be in the visitor’s favour. After all, they must be able to assume that they will not be observed in such a place. That is paramount.
In addition, the sauna can also achieve the purpose in other ways. This purpose is often security or the prevention of (undesirable) intimacies. This can also be achieved by, for example, having personnel, whether recognisable as such or not, walk around regularly.
