Supermarket broke law over CCTV monitoring in canteen

A woman working for a supermarket was fired after she placed a paper bag over a CCTV camera in her staff canteen while a colleague styled her hair during her lunch break.

The case features in the annual report of Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon published on Tuesday.

The woman told the commissioner that the reason for her covering the CCTV camera was that when she was on an official break in the staff canteen, a colleague styled her hair.

She also said the camera was placed in the corner of the staff canteen and there was no signage to inform staff that surveillance was taking place. She had never been advised of the existence of the camera, nor had her employer ever informed her of the purpose of the CCTV in the canteen.

The supermarket told the commissioner that the employee had been dismissed for gross misconduct, because she had breached the store’s honesty policy as outlined in the company handbook.

It said cameras used in the retail environment were to prevent stock “shrinkage” from customer theft, waste and staff theft.

The owner also said the camera was used for health and safety, to counter bullying and harassment and for the overall hygiene of the canteen.

The commissioner said the office had informed the owner that there was no justification from a security perspective for having a camera installed in the canteen area. In a formal decision in January 2015, the commissioner found that the supermarket contravened the Data Protection Acts.

Ms Dixon said data controllers were tempted to use personal information captured on CCTV systems for a whole range of purposes.

“Many businesses have justifiable reasons, usually related to security, for the deployment of CCTV systems on their premises but any further use of personal data captured in this way is unlawful under the Data Protection Acts unless the data controller has at least made it known at the time of recording that images captured may be used for those additional purposes, as well as balancing the fundamental rights of employees to privacy at work in certain situations, such as staff canteens and changing rooms.”

An audit team from the commissioner’s office continued a programme of auditing shopping centres with regard to their use of CCTV footage last year.

Based on its findings, it met with retail representative bodies in order to highlight issues identified.

The commissioner’s office has warned retailers that they will be breaking the law where they share images or footage of individuals.

The office said its guidance had set out how such sensitive personal data in relation to the commission, or alleged commission of offences could be processed and that the information may only be processed by the individual retail outlet.

Body-worn cameras (BWCs) also emerged as a new area of concern in 2015, where they were being used for security purposes in the retail environment, the commissioner said.

Ms Dixon said the use of footage from any surveillance equipment must comply with the transparency requirements of data protection law.

There had been a “marked expansion” in the use of and sophistication of CCTV systems and some were now advanced enough to recognise faces and record both images and sounds, which was “an added layer of monitoring”.