Using Home Security Cameras Legally and Ethically

Home surveillance product sales are booming for good reason. Over the last five years alone, prices have come down significantly while ease of use has improved substantially. Unfortunately, as accessibility to consumers increases, so too does the potential for abuse.

As laws vary from country to country and region to region it is difficult to address abuse in a single article that encompasses every possible scenario. Easiest would be installing a fake security camera and be done with it without violating anybody's rights. But, while phoney cameras will sometimes deter crime, they don't do anything to catch the bad guys when a crime is actually committed.

If you really wish to install a functioning video security system, the best approach for consumers, aside from diligently exploring your area's legal requirements, is to rely on empathy to determine if use of surveillance cameras in any particular way is ethical. In other words, how would you feel if you or your child were the subject being recorded? While such considerations may do much to address ethics, they don't always accurately address legality.

The legal use of video surveillance can be confusing owing, again, to the varied laws in diverse areas. Absent clear legal guidance, which should always be diligently explored before taking action, a good rule of thumb is to consider intent. Court cases in which legal precedent is vague or conflicting are often decided by intent. For example, setting up a nanny cam clearly with your child's safety in mind may be perfectly legal while the exact same camera placed with the obvious intent of catching your babysitter changing to take your kids for a swim in your pool would obviously be legally and morally objectionable.

Even where intentions are morally clear, you still take risk in what kind of surveillance you opt to use. In many locations, video recordings are perfectly legal whilst audio recordings are not. Many of you may feel this is counter-intuitive. After all, when we consider our privacy we're often more concerned with what is seen rather than heard. We don't want to be recorded walking around our homes in the nude, making love to our partners or even picking our noses.

The reason for this strange and confusing tendency to focus on audio wiretapping rather than video is simply a product of the relative newness of video surveillance technology. More cases have been heard and more laws written addressing audio surveillance because the technology has been around much longer. With that fact in mind you can do a great deal to limit your exposure to legal risk by simply disabling your camera's microphone by default.

Whether you opt for a fake security camera or a real cctv camera to protect the exterior of your property, take the time to consider your neighbors. If your camera is pointing in the general direction of their homes they may legitimately feel their privacy is being violated. Work with your neighbors, explain your intentions and even offer to let them see the footage from your camera so they can see for themselves that the video quality or distance of their property means their privacy is, in fact, not being compromised.

While you are probably not legally responsible for informing your neighbors, keeping the peace with your neighbors and fostering good will is actually another facet of a good home security policy. After all, these are the people whose casual observation may catch criminal activity on your property.

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