How we helped the client implement video surveillance in the enterprise
At the beginning of this year, one of our clients contacted us to inquire about the legality of video filming on his company's trading floors. Because the primary targets of surveillance were store visitors and company employees, he expressed grave concerns about the collection and use of their biometric information. After carefully listening to the entrepreneur's concerns, we began to understand the situation.
During the initial consultation, it was determined that the company's video surveillance system had been in place for a long time and was functioning properly. There were no complaints about illegal video collection. However, prior to contacting us, there was a theft in one of the client's stores, and one of the employees was suspected. The client intended to conduct an internal investigation and wanted to use video recordings in the WhatsApp work chat in the future to prevent labor discipline violations. The entrepreneur also hoped to draw public attention to what had occurred by posting a video on the Internet. The client had no documents governing the collection and use of recorded video materials. Doubting the correctness of his actions, the entrepreneur sought legal advice.
The client's concerns were justified due to a lack of proper relationship documentation. The legislation on personal data does not allow the publication of video recordings of employees in the company's private interests. Current biometric data protection rules ensure their special protection, but do not include general requirements for obtaining consent from employees for the dissemination of such data. Even if there is a legal basis for publishing an employee's video on the Internet, it must be motivated by specific goals and not violate the right to personal data confidentiality. Thus, goals such as fulfilling an employment contract, maintaining public order, protecting morality, and so on are not relevant in this case.
After careful consideration of the situation, we proposed to the client a strategy that would allow him to avoid potential legal issues on the part of the employee when disclosing his personal information. Following thorough examination of four options for dealing with video recordings and a risk assessment, a plan was developed that included staff viewing the video materials with the participation of the administrator of video surveillance, as well as the option of anonymizing the recordings before transferring the data for review by third parties or publication on the Internet. We prepared the necessary documents and made adjustments based on the client's requests, including clear instructions for processing video recordings that corresponded to the enterprise's internal business processes.
It was also explained to the client that in order to bring an employee to disciplinary liability using video recordings as evidence, documents on the implementation of the video surveillance system provisions and the corresponding additions to the employment contract must be available on the date of the disciplinary offense. Since the entrepreneur did not have such materials at the time of the incident, it was recommended to transfer the relevant video recordings to law enforcement agencies.