to be seriously concerned about the illegal surveillance cameras and flags on lamp posts?

[Kije]

That's it, really. I live in a semi-rural area. No racial tensions locally, that I'm aware of, at all. The local small market town and surrounding roads are covered, and I do mean covered, in illegally posted flags, all over lamp posts - sometimes three deep. They come down (the local council sometimes stirs themselves to take them down) and are replaced within a few hours. It's been like this since late last summer.

And now the same charming people who are trying to intimidate what they like to call 'pathetic lefties' have put up dozens of surveillance cameras on the same lamp posts, aimed in all directions in a clear attempt to intimidate local people who'd like to take the flags down. The mob who do the flags have said on their own FB site, it's to 'protect their property' (eg the flags they've illegally stuck up lamp posts, it's essentially littering). The obvious take-home is, they think this is their town and they aim to create a chilling effect for anyone who dares to discuss this on local social media, or take the flags down again.

The flags are illegal: the cameras doubly so, I'd have thought, given privacy laws?? Or at least, I'm assuming surveillance cameras mounted on public property and aimed at pedestrians and drivers have to be done by a legitimate authority.

I look at what was happening in Belfast (and elsewhere) last night and honestly, I'm terrified for our country. We seem to be sliding into lawlessness and vigilantism, and blatant intimidation of anyone who speaks out against it.

Images of identifiable individuals constitute personal data, so they can't legally collect or store any images without having a valid legal basis to do so, and they would have to comply with other aspects of the UK GDPR as @5128gap has said - so, privacy notices etc. So you could report it to the ICO, but it's highly questionable as to whether they would actually do anything about it.

I think your best bet would be to push your local council to do more to tackle this issue, and get your MP involved - it will make the council much more motivated to take action. You could highlight the GDPR issue to them as well.

Of course, GDPR only applies if the cameras are actually operational. They may just be dummies aimed at deferring people from taking their stupid flags down.

Agree with Mrs B, the lamp-post cameras are probably dummies, just like the people who put them there.

GDPR rules apply to businesses and organisations.

If this applied to individuals then ring doorbells would be illegal.

@Kije you haven't mentioned anything about reporting the cameras to the council

I would've thought they'd want to take them down.

Thoughts and prayers… that sounds familiar. I’ve heard that politically before, where was that?

I didn't say it was illegal. I said if you film the public in a public space you should have signage and are subject to GDPR laws. This does indeed apply to ring doorbells and the advice is to make sure they don't extend beyond your boundary or you blur out anything that does.

If this is where I think it is,OP (semi rural market town begins with W?) I agree with you. They're all about dividing the community and intimidating 'forriners'.

The cameras were mentioned on a local fb group earlier .

I'd love to have balls (and knees!) to climb up a ladder and pull them all down!

I don’t believe they have the right to appropriate public lamp posts and the like to their surveillance cause.

I believe that the flag installers come out of an organisation called “fly the flag” or something similar. Though doubt it’s registered or anything more than a Facebook page. Does that count?

Surely, ‘surveillance cameras’ need to be either wired in (impossible on a lamp post) or they need to have a SIM card and a subscription plan. I know because we use them to monitor livestock. Unless they are just trail cams that record over and someone has to come collect the camera to look at the footage. It’s not like they can be transmitting anything anywhere. Trust me, these gammons are not paying £40 a month subscription per camera to monitor their little flags. They’ll be fake. Or put there by the council.

They do of course, but not exclusively. When a private individuals camera range strays from their property to public spaces they are subject to the regulations. Look on gov.uk guidance on the use of domestic CCTV, it states this quite clearly in the third paragraph.
OP you could complain to the ICO but it may be tricky if you don't know who has installed the cameras. Worth a call though.

They don't have to be a business or organisation. This is incorrect information. The correct information is on gov.uk.

I'm guessing that you don't have people sticking up flags expressing political views you find repellant outside your windows? Or, worse, cameras possibly filming you and your kids with footage ending up who knows where? Said people creating an environment in your community where you no longer have free speech?

You may not worry about it but to mock people who do does not reflect well on you. Or maybe you're out at night with a ladder...

There’s been huge objection to Pride flags round here, and the locals were told to suck it up.

Report to the council as fly tipping and let them deal with it. They should happily remove them.

Fucking twats these so called patriots are

Absolute blight on this country and they’ve scarcely a brain cell between them.

Don't hijack my flag for your knuckle dragging agenda

They embarrass the vast majority of decent British people

OP why are you intimidated by a flag?

Because TWATS are hijacking it for an agenda that most decent people do not agree with.

They’re flying my flag, our flag, to divide. It’s really quite simple. And it’s wrong and most people (ie the country as a whole) do not agree with tatty, weather torn flags flown often upside down, at half mast, from our street lights

Or go straight to the ICO website. Lots of detail and helpful examples here:

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/home-cctv-systems/
Home CCTV systems
This guide will help you if you want to understand what data protection law says when someone is using home CCTV at their property. This includes the use of fixed cameras and smart doorbells.

CCTV can help protect a person’s property. However there are some rules that owners should follow.

Where possible owners should position their cameras to only capture their own property. However, if this isn’t possible and the CCTV captures someone else's property, a public area or communal space, then data protection law applies. This is because CCTV can capture images and voices of other people, and this counts as their personal information.

Some plonker near here put up the flag of Georgia. Extra George crosses!
Idiots.

That ICO page doesn't envisage individuals setting up private CCTV in an entirely public space.

It does discuss minimal coverage of public spaces where the CCTV has been set up to cover the private space of a home.

But in a nutshell, it looks like it will be tricky for the installer of a private CCTV camera in a public space to stay within the law.

Eg, how are they going to carry out these functions?

What are the rules?
Data protection law says that people who capture images or audio recordings from outside their property boundary must:

• have a clear reason for using the CCTV;
• make sure the CCTV doesn’t capture more than they need to;
• let people know they are using CCTV (eg by displaying a sign);
• in most cases, provide some of the recordings if asked by a person whose image or audio, or both, the CCTV has captured;
• delete the footage regularly or automatically, or both; and
• stop recording a person if they object to being recorded and there’s no legitimate reason to continue recording them.

There is nothing intimidating about any flag. With the world cup football and ladies T20 cricket I expec to see lots of flags flying. In countries all over Europe they fly flags. Do you find those intimidating too? It's pathetic a grown adult is afraid of a flag.

This.

Just ignore them. Let them waste their money. Things will calm down, governments change, policies evolve. People move on to the next big thing.

Keep going about your life as you normally would and don't let them have any influence.

Yes there is - you have to have permission to mount something on authority owned property