[e-privacy] Legal experts say that Austria may have 100, 000 illegal video monitors

[pinna at autistici.org]

Da http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/79786/from/rss09 , dove trovate
anche i link di approfondimento.

OFF TOPIC:
Immagino che se fosse passata la modifica alla legge sul diritto d'autore,
inoltrare il testo completo dell'articolo come sto facendo avrebbe  
potuto costituire un problema per i titolari del server che ospita  
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Pareri?

ciao
pinna


In Austria, more than 100,000 illegal video monitoring systems with  
record functions may currently be in operation. At a side event during  
the legal forum Infolaw, Viennese lawyer Margot Artner told heise  
online of her concerns. She bases her estimates on information  
provided by vendors of monitoring software and technicians who install  
such systems. Representing an undisclosed client, Artner managed to  
obtain the first permit for the operation of the video monitoring  
system in Austria.

It took the data protection commission seven months to approve the  
permit. The lawyer hopes that the ice has now been broken so that  
future permits will be issued much more quickly. The conditions  
imposed by the authorities include the deletion of recordings after 48  
hours (or on Monday at noon after weekends) and restricted access to  
the recordings solely for qualified staff members working in pairs.

Up to now, the Wiener Linien (Vienna's public transport system) was  
the only organization to have received a permit, but it was limited to  
a two-year test operation that has now been extended for another two  
years. Passengers and personnel may be filmed and the recordings  
stored for 48 hours. The data protection commission plans to use this  
test operation to see whether the monitoring system helps minimize  
damage from vandalism, either by preventing people from causing damage  
in the first place or by helping officials locate the perpetrators.

The Wiener Linien are investing 3.7 million euros in the system in the  
hope that damage from vandalism can be reduced by 200,000 euros per  
year. This unimpressive return on investment is one reason why city  
council member Sepp Rieder (SPÖ) and ÖVP politician Wolfgang Gerstl  
have been nominated for the Big Brother Award. These negative prizes  
will be awarded on October 25 in the Viennese theater Rabenhof.

Such monitoring systems are used legally at such public facilities as  
police stations, military facilities, and others as prescribed by law  
(banks, traffic monitoring, etc.). In addition, individual companies  
have also received a permit to operate cameras that are activated if  
an alarm is set off, such as during a robbery. But at present, the  
data protection commission has very few applications to process.  
Almost all of the video monitoring systems with a record function are  
being operated illegally; after all, all of these systems have to be  
entered in the data processing register regardless of the number of  
cameras used. In addition, a permit from the data protection  
commission is required in almost all cases.

Those who fail to obtain such permit face a penalty of 9,445 euros in  
addition to costly cease-and-desist orders from anyone who wishes to  
file for one. On the other hand, recordings do not require a permit if  
they are not made with the intent of identifying people -- not even in  
individual, exceptional cases. In other words, even if you only set up  
such a system to identify burglars, you need a permit beforehand. In  
addition, labor-law restrictions apply in working areas.