A Hong Kong fitness chain was cautioned by the city’s privacy watchdog after it installed a CCTV camera facing a men’s bathroom missing a door, one of about 200 complaints involving video surveillance this year.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data on Wednesday also revealed that it had received 1,166 inquiries of the same nature over the same period, prompting it to issue guidelines on CCTV usage in October.
Around 80 per cent of the complaints were related to disputes between neighbours, the watchdog said.
“In these cases, we try to see if the cameras have captured excessive personal data,” said Ada Chung Lai-ling, the privacy commissioner for personal data.
“After our intervention, including getting in touch with the management office, the neighbour is usually advised to either remove the camera or adjust the angle.”
She added that in some cases, cameras were positioned to face a neighbour’s door directly, allowing the devices to capture activities inside their home whenever the door was opened.
