Shocked to have been secretly recorded at work.

[Whataninvasionofprivacy]

I work as a TA in school, and last week at the end of a lesson, the teacher called me over and indicated (behind the kid’s backs) to the class cupboard. She then whispered “Will you turn off the iPad?” I wasn’t sure what she was on about, but she then whispered that she’d just recorded the entire lesson, but didn’t want the kids to know. She had been told to do this by a senior staff member.

Am I being ridiculous to feel annoyed by this? I’m sure I should have been told beforehand. Also what about parents who don’t normally consent, they had no choice in this case.

But the parents up in arms about their explicit consent not being granted for any image of their child being captured, and auto suggesting a GDPR breach, they are very wrong

you’re being totally disingenuous.

There isn’t a single poster on this thread (let along the “MANY MANY” you claim) that has been up in arms regarding “any” image, so your continued reference to what happens in the park or in someone’s house is irrelevant.

Those who have explicitly called breach have done so with reference to the OP who stated she didn’t consent.

God this thread is so depression in underlining so starkly how little teachers think of parents; the most important role models in the lives of the children they too are seeking to influence.

Any teacher who has observed childhood neglect should be happy to see parents who care and intervene with respect to children's safety, including their data safety.

Your lack of imagination or even critical reasoning skills of how data collected for one purpose might end up be used for another does you a disservice.

I conceal my children's identity as much as possible in data.

Nothing is saved to cloud storage. No pictures of them shared on social media. Have ticked "no" to collecting or sharing images on every check box possible.

I'm a criminal lawyer. The worst case outcomes that you consider parents "hysterical" for guarding against are my day job.

And even if parents are just "awkward" because they think it's their right... it is their right. Teachers don't get to decide parents' motivations for asserting their rights and decide to abrogate them accordingly.

I think it was for this reason, definitely not monitoring me as recently been told how happy they are with my hard work. I just feel it’s a bit poor not to have told me.

"I just feel it’s a bit poor not to have told me."

Indeed it is! I hope you can discuss it with the Head (and that they can understand the position).

A Message from Ella | Without Consent

Exactly! I nearly died when she told me at the end of the lesson, and I’d been sitting right by the camera, totally unaware. Not that I was doing anything wrong, but I should have been told

It was recorded on the class iPad and then left on the teacher’s desk in the classroom afterwards.

It’s totally different to cctv. You know cctv is there. I didn’t know about this 45 min recording of myself

The class iPad is a device capable of logging in to IRIS connect. And the data protection policy will take into consideration what it's used for and how it's stored. Education clearly does fall into the categories for which it's safe and legal to process data like this.

“Education clearly does fall into the categories for which it's safe and legal to process data like this”

if the people being recorded consent

Why are you struggling so much to understand this?

Well firstly!!!!

Never presume!! You are totally wrong! It was recorded on the class iPad. I could have gone onto it and forwarded it to my friends…you know…like your average iPad!! After it was recorded, the iPad was left lying on the teacher’s desk. When I go back after half term I bet it’s still sitting there.

Wrong again! It’s nothing like having someone observe the lesson. Sorry! Do you think I’m totally blind? You see weirdly, when someone is observing the lesson, we can physically see them standing there. However, and this is a shocker, when you are secretly recorded, you have no way of knowing you’re being watched.

Wow! Maybe I thought my work wasn’t good enough and I should try harder. So last night at 11.15pm, I was sitting at my kitchen table making resources for my English group. That was after getting home from my second job. The job I do because I only earn £12.50 an hour. This morning I arrived at school at 8am. I get paid from 8.30 am, but due to the severe lack of time yesterday, I needed to catch up on organising my work for my intervention. This was my choice and I do not get paid for that. I get a 30 min unpaid lunch break, but today it was only 20 minutes, as I was helping a child who’d dropped her food. At 3.45pm I was still there. I only get paid til 3.30 pm, but was talking to a child who lives in a hell whole of a family and is hanging on by a thread.

So given the above, is it too fucking much to ask to be told when you’re being secretly recorded???? 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

But it was part of lots of videos on the iPad when I checked. I coukd see the clips of previous lessons on it.

“If the people being recoded give consent” Are you struggling to read? I was secretly recorded without consent.

I completely get your anger OP - but think you may have misquoted here as @RunningOverTime was responding to
@Whitak

Look, OP, you need to put in a complaint about this. I would be going to the seniors and saying under no circumstances are you to ever be recorded without your prior knowledge. You also need to tell the teacher this. You can reply and reply on here, but you need to actually do something about this.

Nope! Because the OP actually went to sleep last night after posting. She then awoke at 6am, walked her dog til 6.30am, showered and left home at 7.30am and arrived at work at 8am. She then left work at 3.50 pm, drove to her second job and arrived home from work at 8pm. Is that ok?

Thank you so much! Weird that I’d go to sleep eh? 😂😂 I have directly responded to her also. I actually worked for 12 straight hours yesterday as I have two jobs.

Genuinely horrified that you are in a classroom. Three reasons: lack of awareness, lack of ability to understand simple concepts, lack of understanding the law and continuing to condone breaking it despite being told otherwise.

Yes, basically, what I'm getting from this thread in summary is:

1. OP was not informed so no consent given - think we are all agreed this is a breach, though some think she should not be bothered about that as it's only like cctv and big brother state is fine and dandy if you've nothing to hide.

1. The children were unaware they were being recorded at the time but that's hunkydory as they're just kids and some parents may have signed something 4 years ago at enrolment they thought was to do with filming of the nativity etc and even if they didn't it's no worse than cctv and it's stored properly and deleted after so where's the problem and who wants it anyway? What's that, dark web you say? Isn't that just for tax avoidance or something LA LA LA LA LA <fingers in ears>

1. Also we 100% unequivocally trust that the teaching staff who didn't bother to inform the OP the recording was happening, bothered to actually save the recording on the appropriate platform and not just quickly to the desktop as she was flat out and didn't have time to even turn the thing off properly and it doesn't matter anyway coz it's all a load of pearl clutching and that would NEVER happen coz school policies are always right and adhered to by everyone without question and Jonny and his parents are arseholes anyways so probs deserve whatever. And we fully expect she'll get round to deleting it eventually with the others with the secure delete software that probably hasn't quite installed properly or needs updating (sure she will get on to IT about that sometime) when she's done the ten tonne of marking she's got but it's all making her a better teacher and fuck the nambypamby law so THAT'S ALL FINE THEN.

Has that covered it?

No, once you post on Mumsnet you must be available instantly to reply 24/7

Hopefully the advice you have got from the people who do understand the law is enough to make you go and make a big fuss about what happened. And make sure you record it all on paper. If you were minded to, I think an employment lawyer would eat the school alive for this.

I cant see lots of parents pearl clutching. I can see a number of people who clearly have up the date knowledge of relevant legislation making it clear to op that she doesn't have to tolerate being secretly recorded in her workplace.

All recordings on iris we have consent for from parents. They sign a yearly reminder as do the students.

In fairness we do always let them know they're being recorded and this applies to LSAs too. So the "secrecy" of the recording is different and perhaps where the difference in legality comes from.

Iris have a full GDPR and privacy notice/policy, and so do the school including DIPA and DPO.

The camera WAS hidden, or rather the iPad was hidden behind stuff. She whispered that she’d been recording and I could not see where the iPad was u til she told me. She had cleverly hidden it and told me she did not want the children to know it was there.