Is this a safeguarding concern?

[Zozo1990]

Asking for my mum who lives in a flat with four other neighbours on her floor. She lives with my dad and has grandchildren over every weekend. One of the neighbours had installed a wide-angle door camera with audio recording on the floor. The video recording covers the entire floor from the staircase door and lift to the other four flats and their doors. So they can see every single flat and who is coming and going from there. Conversations are recorded. I know this because the neighbour sent my mum a video and said how cute her grandkids were. She had footage of hrem dancing and singing a song whilst waiting for the lift. It was about a minute long!! My mum is in her 60s, and she's very uncomfortable now and has started taking the stairs down as she doesn't want to be recorded and her conversations recorded whilst she's waiting a minute or two for the lift to arrive.

Is this normal? Does anyone have experience of this?

No it is not a safeguarding concern.

Not safeguarding but very weird and intrusive

No but I wouldn't like it either.

Not a safeguarding concern.

Well I’m guessing in such a confined space it’s going to be tricky to get the camera to only film a small space directly in front of their own door but I always think in these circumstances that if anything was ever stolen or there was break in or incident on the landing, the people complaining about the camera would be the first ones to complain about there being no CCTV in the block. It’s one of those situations where you can’t have your cake and eat it. Just how private are conversations on shared landings anyway? Presumably things that sensitive wouldn’t be being discussed outside the home anyway. From a civil perspective there might be a privacy issue but good luck getting that inside a courtroom. Civil issues tend to require very deep pockets.

I get the point about security, but for me the issue is a private individual recording and storing audio and video of neighbours and children in a shared residential space. That feels very different to professionally managed CCTV.

It's not an issue. She's open about it, she's shared it. It's not being used for nefarious purposes.

I understand that you don’t see it as an issue and that you don’t intend any harm. For me, intent isn’t really the point — it’s about how it feels to have private audio and video of families and children recorded and stored by a neighbour in a shared space. Even when shared openly and not for nefarious reasons, it’s still something many people aren’t comfortable with, which is why there are rules regarding shared communal spaces and recording.

It depends. If the neighbour put the footage on social media of other people, children or otherwise, then surely it could be a safeguarding issue? There might be vulnerable children or adults in the footage, neighbour wouldn't necessarily be aware of that. That's why there's been bans of taking footage of school plays etc.

Has she put it on social media? You could just knock on and voice your concerns. Isn’t it just a Ring doorbell? Majority of people have these now.

Exactly - that’s part of the concern. It’s not just about intent or whether footage is shared publicly, but that private individuals recording and storing audio/video in communal residential spaces can’t know who might be vulnerable, or how footage could be used later. That’s why safeguarding and data protection rules exist, and why it’s something for the housing landlord to manage rather than neighbours individually knocking on their doors.

It’s not about whether it’s been put on social media or intent. The concern is that it’s recording clear video and audio of neighbours and children in a shared communal space, not just her own doorway. A private Ring-style device in a flat corridor isn’t the same as a house with a front door facing a public street.

But what do you think they’ll capture in a public corridor that would cause concern?

I don’t know that it’s a safeguarding issue exactly (unless you think there is some nefarious purpose) but it is a data protection issue.

Have a look at this information:

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/home-cctv-systems/

It's not a safeguarding concern, but the neighbour is bound by gdpr rules around what she can do with the video and audio, which include having to provide your mum with any footage she appears on request, and deleting any footage on request.

It’s not about catching anything dramatic. It’s about a private individual recording and storing video and audio of neighbours and children in an indoor communal space. Over time it captures people’s routines, conversations, visitors and children’s behaviour without consent. That’s why reaidential buildings and data-protection law treat this differently from public CCTV or someone filming their own front door. This is a flat. A communal building

Why don’t you just knock on and speak to her about it?

It’s intrusive. I’m sick of ring doorbell cameras. The school route we walk is littered with them.

I don’t understand how they caught on after someone successfully sued their neighbour a few years ago for invasion of privacy.

I understand that some people like them for security, but everyone I know who has one are the classic nosy gossips.

But to answer your question, it’s not a safeguarding concern. But it is an invasion of privacy.

Not being comfortable with something is not the same as safeguarding issue, though. If the neighbours are not comfortable, they can make a polite request for the camera to be removed. There may be an argument for invasion of privacy on the basis of recording sound. But that's about it.

Yes, intent and discomfort aren’t the same as safeguarding. My concern is that a private neighbour is recording audio and video of families and children in a shared indoor space, storing it, and sharing it. That goes beyond personal discomfor. It’s a safeguarding issue in the sense of risk management for children, not because someone is actively harming them.

It's not illegal to record video and/audio of members of the public.

It's how journalism works.

It's also how security CCTV works.

True, recording in public spaces is different, but this is a shared indoor residential corridor, not a public street. Private individuals recording audio/video of neighbours and children in communal areas without consent is not treated the same as journalism or professional CCTV, which have clear legal frameworks and safeguards.

This isn't a safeguarding concern but potentially a privacy and a GDPR breach.

Speak to the neighbour. Ask them to move the camera so it doesn't record your parents door (that's their private area) and to zone the recording so it doesn't pick up wider than their own doorstep.

A quick Google will give you an idea

They need to be open about how it's storing data and who will have access. I don't believe they should share with anyone except maybe the Police if requested.

I personally would not be happy. Too many people have their Ring doorbell filming private people in the street rather than adjust their settings to film only their private dwelling.

The easiest way to find out the answer to your question is to make a safeguarding referral to your local council. You should hear pretty swiftly whether they will pick this up. Having done many referrals in my professional capacity, I am fairly confident in what their answer would be.

The fact you find it intrusive doesn’t make it a ‘safeguarding concern’ though. It isn’t putting the children at risk of harm.

You might be able argue that it could be a data protection breach, but that’s got nothing to do with safeguarding.