Silkie Carlo, Director of Big Brother Watch said:
Advanced home CCTV, especially Amazon Ring devices, can be incredibly intrusive on neighbours and local communities. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of cases of excessive neighbour surveillance in the UK.
People have the right to protect their property but not to spy on their neighbours.
It’s not illegal per se if a home surveillance camera captures passers-by but few owners of these devices understand that doing so makes them a data controller with specific legal obligations.
Amazon’s front-door surveillance cameras can record large parts of residential streets and are planned to use facial recognition. People would be right to be concerned about their video and sound being collected by neighbours, and indeed Amazon, and are right to exercise their data rights in such instances.
Many people feel uncomfortable about being surveilled by their neighbours.
We’d encourage people to think carefully before using these cameras.
ENDS