Hitting pause on installing CCTVs in S'pore cinemas

Some cinemas in Singapore have announced that they will be installing CCTVs on their premises--the operators hope to use the cameras to spot movie pirates as well as resolve disputes with customers.

While up to now, installing CCTVs have been done with relative ease, with the upcoming Personal Data Protection Act, there are implications which property owners should consider. (On a related note, the Singapore government also announced the installation of more CCTVs for crime prevention purposes, but the PDPA does not cover the government, which is a topic for discussion on another occasion.)

The consultation paper leading to the PDPA suggests that CCTVs in privately-owned non-residential areas will be covered. Hence, building owners should practise the fundamental principles of data protection pertaining to collection, usage, disclosure, security, access and correction, when using CCTV within their premises.

They should ensure that the CCTV surveillance is for limited and defined purposes, or for purposes required by law; it is carried out securely and the images are destroyed when they are no longer required for the defined purpose.

Privacy proection is going to become a way of Singapore life and we should start sensitizing ourselves to such issues.