Some 7,027 declarations covering 55,650 surveillance cameras installed in places accessible to the public have been submitted to the Interior Department since new regulations took effect in May. Contrary to the old system, the new regulations do not include police cameras. These now come under the legislation governing police functions.
Previously, surveillance cameras had to be declared electronically to the Belgian Privacy Commission, CPVP. However, since the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect on 25 May last, the Commission no longer receives declarations.
A new system of declarations was put in place requiring owners of video surveillance systems set up in locations accessible to the public to declare them through the www.declarationcamera.be website. The same goes for the declarations of alarms.
The use of video surveillance has been regulated for about a dozen years now by the so-called Camera Law, which was recently amended to allow the use of this type of technology with due respect for citizens’ privacy.
The Camera Law states, among other things, that a pictogramme needs to be posted at the entrance of the place filmed and that the person in charge of managing the cameras must keep an image-processing register, which must be made available to the Data Protection Authority -the new name of the CPVP- upon request.
Owners of surveillance cameras have until 25 May 2020 to comply with the new legislation. Anyone requiring further information on the Camera Law or the new procedure for registering surveillance systems is invited to consult the following website: https://www.besafe.be/fr.
The Brussels Times
