Why do people get offended by my camera?

[NewDaye]

I live in an “upscale” apartment building and have 2 direct neighbours who I share a hallway with. The entire building only has a handful of apartments, but there’s been issues with airbnbs, antisocial behaviour, external entrances being left open. This led to me getting a doorbell camera for my front door inside the apartment building.

My direct neighbours don’t care, and the building developers are aware & don’t have an issue.

However my camera often collects footage of random people (mainly women) coming into the hallway then filming my doorbell camera on their phones, staring scowling and gesturing at the camera, rolling their eyes, giving dirty looks, then leaving. On one occasion I had a woman banging on my door over it! I don’t recognise any of these people as residents so just wonder why they are so put out by my camera, especially as they seemingly have no business there anyway. It’s not even like they interact with my neighbours.

Some people don't like being filmed without their permission as it feels like being spied on.

But they don’t live here.

They are in the vicinity of the camera and being filmed. Whether they live there or not is irrelevant.

Is it legally sound? It should be recording your property only.

If they don't like it, maybe they could just... not go into a building where they don't live? Then they wouldn't be "spied on" 🙄

Do these people not realise they are being recorded on CCTV pretty much everywhere they go? If they're not doing anything untoward, I don't know why they're bothered 🤷‍♀️

Not true. Which is why when there's an incident in the street, police often ask locals for camera footage - cameras may be recording a wider area

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/is-it-legal-to-record-security-camera-and-smart-doorbell-footage-at-your-home-akMQD1C0P0zi

That's a tricky little argument. Privacy and constant surveillance are important issues. There are a million non-illegal things I do that I don't want on film.

I can't stand the constant surveillance by every Tom, Dick and Harry.

Exactly we are one of the most watched nations on the planet.
I can't remember the number of times we are on camera a day but it is surprisingly high.

Have you sought permission to have and know what it can and can't film within the rules?, if any

The fact that they don't live in the building and have no business there could very well be the reason they don't like being filmed. Maybe they're prostitutes or they're stealing packages.

Odd. I have ring door bell, had it for years. No idea about these strangers but don’t remove it.

You just need to put a sign up and abide by gdpr.

Delivering drugs or prostitutes

You do not need to put a sign up at all. Whenever there is a car theft on my estate or burglary, the police ask for camera footage. We have a WhatsApp group, due to being persistently targeted by thieves, and people post pictures of men who are casing houses. All the neighbours with cameras/cctv post footage so everyone is aware of what and who to be on the look out for. This also applies when someone is the victim of theft, they ask for all footage so they can hand it over to the police.

We used to live in a city centre apartment, smart new building, nearly 20 years ago now.

We used to notice lots of men in suits coming in at the same time as we were coming home from work but never thought much of it.

Then the building hit the news as a brothel was found and the random men in suits stopped.

I'm assuming they're visiting people in the building rather than wandering in for no reason.🙄

It's not being offended.
It's not enjoying an invasion of privacy.

Since we found two men breaking in to one neighbour ( actually it was the gas people....) and a group of men (plain clothes police) breaking the door down for another neighbour....these incidents we saw in person but... I don't give a toss what visitors think of my Ring.. If they have an issue they can explain why and I'll take it in board.

They can pound sand, OP has permission.

It's a communal hallway, there's not really a reasonable expectation of privacy in the same way as a neighbours CCTV filming you in your own back garden.

With the somewhat transient occupants in the building with Air BnB, OPs security concerns would probably trounce someone standing in a communal hallway and simply disliking being filmed.

This. You’re entitled to make your own security arrangements. Visitors are entitled to not be thrilled about being filmed.

As it's so "upscale" I would presume escorts so maybe that's their business of being there "random people (mainly women) coming into the hallway" ask them?

It is relevant. They don't live there and they're not neighbours' visitors, so what are they doing in the building in the first place?