Wireless surveillance cameras - use, laws and ethics. | Wireless Surveillance Cameras and the Law

Before you set your wireless surveillance camera up, you want to take one very important thing into consideration and that’s where your plans fit in with the law. Even though your security camera is set up on (or in) your property, privacy laws may still apply. It’s best to know them rather than risk finding yourself in court over a violation. 

Where I live, the regulations for interior surveillance intended for use in court can best be summed up as acceptable providing one party is aware. Imagine a scenario in which my burly roommate were trying to extort money from me and threatened to beat me to death if I told anybody and that he’d deny it if I accused him. Can I record that conversation and use it in court? Where I live, the answer is yes. Without a wiretap order or even involving the police, as long as one of us (me) is aware that our conversation is being recorded, I’m fine and the footage is admissible. In my neighboring state, however, that’s not the case. In that state, a recording (video or audio) of our conversation would be inadmissible unless I advised him in advance that the conversation was being recorded or the court authorized the wiretap (and I were a law enforcement agent). 

If your intent is to catch your roommate stealing things from your bedroom, you have a bit more leeway. If I setup my home surveillance camera in my bedroom, most states will concede that I am protecting my own property and privacy. Should I catch my roommate on video entering my room, rifling through my clothes and DVDs and walking out with property that isn’t hers, I may have a legitimate claim and my security camera footage may be admissible. That, of course, assumes she doesn’t claim that I gave consent for her to enter. If your objective is to protect your personal property in a shared living arrangement, try to document some solid proof that you set your room and your belongings off limits in advance. 

But let’s say you have no intentions of going to court. You simply want to catch your roommate messing with your property so you can confront her and call her bluff when she denies the act. Let’s further assume you want to catch her using your shampoo or the expensive hair care products you keep in the bathroom. You set your spy camera up, cleverly concealed in a clock or plant, and place it in the bathroom. A few weeks later, there’s your roommate entering the bathroom, using the toilet, taking a shower (and using your shampoo), drying off with your clean towel and then getting ready for her date using your expensive hair care products and makeup. You confront her and there’s a heated argument. A few weeks later you are handed a summons by the county sheriff to appear in court on charges of violating your roommate’s privacy. What went wrong? 

In the above scenario, even though you were being victimized by your roommate, you took things a step further and victimized her by filming her without consent in a setting in which she had a right to expect privacy. You are, of course, perfectly within your rights to file suit against her for any losses incurred for her using your stuff, but who do you think is in hotter water at this stage? How would you feel if somebody had video of you using the toilet, stripping down, showering and drying off? Your goose is very likely cooked at this stage. 

Even setting up a wireless surveillance camera outside your house to watch your property may entail some risks that require you to first know your local laws before you employ one. What works largely in your defense here is the widely (but not universally) accepted concept of public domain. Think of the paparazzi chasing actors and actresses in the street. Sure, they may not be permitted inside the restaurant. That’s private property. They aren’t allowed to jump a fence and photograph Angelina Jolie in her skivvies wandering around her own home, either. Again this is private property and she has a reasonable expectation to privacy. But were Angelina so inclined to run down a public street naked, every picture taken would legal and there isn’t a thing she could do about it. No lawyer could block the publishing of those photographs because Angelina has no right to claim an expectation of privacy for things she does in the public domain. 

So you’re safe, right? Well not so fast. Assume you set your camera up to catch whoever has been parking next to you and dinging your car door. Your wireless surveillance camera has a nice view of the parking lot in front of your townhouse. Unfortunately the townhouses across from yours are also in view. Depending on your local laws, this may be considered an invasion of privacy. Now, logic would dictate to me that my camera isn’t going to see anything going on in those houses that I couldn’t see with the naked eye. In other words, in order for me to have footage of my neighbor walking around in the nude, she’d have to have her blinds open while she did it and then its pretty much public domain anyway, right? I’d be within my rights to call the police and have them ask her to stop lewd behavior before the neighborhood kids are corrupted, right? 

Maybe, but your neighbor might have the upper hand if your local laws provide it. She may have quickly dashed across the window to fetch a towel and didn’t realize it was open. A casual passerby wouldn’t have noticed but you, with your disgusting camera peeping in her window all day, did. She may have a legitimate claim that her privacy has been violated if she later hears about what you recorded. She may even have enough of a claim in advance of anything like that happening. In other words, the men in blue might come by and ask you to remove your camera simply because she has expressed concern that something like that MIGHT happen. 

The examples I’ve provided should help illustrate that wireless surveillance cameras can be valuable tools in protecting your person and property, but, used inappropriately or not in accordance with your local laws, they can also get you in hot water. Use good judgment before you setup a camera and research the laws in your area as best you can rather than assuming you have full right to do what you want. If you are on good terms with your neighbors, advise them you’ve setup a home security camera and invite them to come over to see how it is aimed as you don’t want to impose on their right to privacy. They may well thank you for both the added security and for considering their feelings in the matter.