Can my camera film the neighbors or the street?

A camera at a residential property is intended for your own property: front door, driveway, garden, shed. As soon as you systematically capture images of the neighbors' garden, window, or driveway, you are processing their personal data and have no basis for it. This often leads to neighbor disputes in practice more frequently than a fine, but legally you are weak.

A small patch of sidewalk that inevitably catches your eye because your front door is facing the street is usually defensible. A camera that looks over the entire street is not. The difference lies in the necessity: do you film what you need to see to secure your door, or do you watch the neighborhood?

Almost every modern camera can digitally cover part of the image. We place those masks over the installation on the neighbor's property or the part of the street you don't need. The image becomes black there and is not recorded either, so it's not a matter of later looking away.

If you film your visitors or staff, you must make that known — usually with a sign at the entrance — and you may not film secretly. You do not keep images for longer than necessary; four weeks is a usual period. In Belgium, an additional reporting requirement applies before the system goes live.