Cameras filming public footpaths - is this even allowed?

[Miniegg6]

Went for a run this morning on my usual route (footpaths and bridleways through fields). Noticed a load of cameras stuck up on trees and fences recording, which I thought was strange.

I’ve since seen a fb post saying that the cameras are to record sightings of a missing dog and asking people not to touch them.

AIBU to feel slightly uneasy about this? Is it even allowed? I don’t know the person who has lost their dog but presuming any GDPR type rules have probably not been considered. Yes I know CCTV, ring doorbells etc are everywhere but this feels different somehow. I run this route all the time and feel slightly uncomfortable that there’s now footage of me!

I’m part of a dog trapping team. Cameras are exceptionally useful. They are usually motion sensor so we get an alert so we know if it’s the dog we are looking for, when and where the dog is, so we can make plans to trap, what direction it comes from/going.

The ones we have are motion activated. So you pick it up and it shows you any footage that has caused the camera to activate.

I've no idea about lost dogs but foxes tend to be creatures of habit.

They help massively.

Dogs are creatures of habit, so if Fido is seen in X area at X time on Sunday, the likelihood is that he'll come back around the same time on Monday, so the trappers know when/where to lay a trap, where to place food, or whether to look west or north to see where the dog goes next.

Many lost dogs go into something called "survival mode" where they can quite literally walk past their owners and not recognise them, so cameras mean teams can set up traps and catch them that way instead.

Personally, I have no issue with cameras in public places, and if they make it safer for women and children, I say the more the merrier. I have no expectation of privacy outside of my home aside from being in a changing room or restroom. I can appreciate that others feel differently, though.

If it's a public park then cameras up in trees is the same as a bag left on the path - fine for you to pick up or take down and throw in the bin.

People leaving their stuff around in public don't get to dictate whether someone else takes it down.

Remove them.

Wow, you'd actually sabotage someones efforts to find and recover a lost pet?

Ok. But if the camera is trained on a footpath or other busy public space it must go off all the time, surely?

I can certainly see that if there are teams of people manning these cameras it must be easier. I just pictured an owner sitting in front of a monitor for hour after hour.

I would protect my needs if someone was preferencing their own needs over mine in a way I thought was unreasonable.

If someone put a camera up in the showers to study the movements of mosquitoes then I'd expect people to take them down and I wouldn't call it sabotage.

Just because you think this is reasonable it doesn't mean someone protecting their own interests is sabotaging anything at all. The camera owner has sabotaged the OP's sense of safety and quiet enjoyment going for a run.

It's rarely just one person - there are volunteer teams up and down the country who do this kind of thing for free to help lost pets find their way home.

If you look at how much information they had on where and when Nicola Bulmer went before she went missing you will understand how much footage there is available on most areas.

And please understand that a public right of way does not make somewhere a public place. It is still someone's land. There is very little public space in the UK, although more in England than Scotland.

Best stay indoors then, or do you go around vandalising CCTV cameras in public places, or those on private land legally recording public places (which this almost certainly is).

Your right to privacy ends at your front door pretty much - with the exception of public toilets and work place toilets. You're on film on the pavement, on the bus, in stores, crossing the road... everywhere you go. And most of that monitoring is 'just in case' not specifically to find a lost pet.

If your need not to be filmed in public is so great... don't go out in public.

That’s not quite true. Privacy is a much more nuanced concept than that. It differs from data protection.

For instance, if you sit on a park bench and have a private conversation you may be in public but it would be intrusive and unlawful for a person surreptitiously to record what you say. And even more strongly unlawful to use the recording.

And people in distress in the street - like victims of crime, accidents or ill health - have expectations of privacy which the law recognises, for example.

A camera searching for lost dogs on public land or a right of way is unlikely to be domestic use. So someone should be registering as a data controller and meeting all the requirements, including supplying the data on request to anyone recorded.

Sometimes. Most the time they are only switched on at night as that is when most lost dogs move around.

And we usually wouldn’t use them in busy areas as the dog is unlikely to hang around so it’s not a good place to feed and trap.

I also work for the Council and they could be for catching anti social behaviour. If a RIPA order has been sought then we don’t need to put up signs or let members of the public know about them.

That’s interesting. Do the cameras have night vision of some sort?

I hadn’t realised lost dog spotting was such a science!

Yes, ours do, we use ring doorbells a lot as they work well. We also have hand held thermal cameras and thermal drones.

GDPR only applies to businesses not personal people misquote this all the time when it suits or they think it suits

There are a number of footpaths that cross the Chequers Estate - at key sections you will find Cameras trained on you. Similarly on the Woburn Estate - they really don't like having a public footpath running across their estate - alsorts of warning signs and cameras trained on you. Don't care Tbh- public footpath - as long as I stay on it - I am doing no harm.

That’s an over-simplification. But I agree that some posters think they have a right not to be recorded by anyone, anywhere which is wrong.

You can film anything you like in a public space i think op.