There has never been such a punishment in Poland. Almost 27 thousand PLN for monitoring
Almost 27 thousand PLN fine will be paid by the owner of the monitoring system, which covered not only his property. This is the first such penalty imposed by the Personal Data Protection Office.
The President of the Personal Data Protection Office (UODO) imposed a huge fine on the property owner who had private monitoring around the house. A dozen or so cameras were to record not only their own property, but also the public road and neighbors’ properties 24 hours a day.
As reported by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, the case began with complaints from neighbors. They claimed that the monitoring scope extended beyond the area belonging to the owner of the cameras. Particular concerns were raised by the positioning of one of the cameras, which was supposed to be aimed directly at the window of the toilet in the neighboring building.
The President of the Office of Personal Data Protection, Mirosław Wróblewski, asked the owner of the monitoring system to provide explanations. However, he did not receive the correspondence sent to him twice. As a result, the facts were established on the basis of materials provided by the complainants and the Personal Data Protection Office’s own findings. The office found the neighbors’ claims to be proven.
According to the daily, the owner of the property used monitoring, among others: to initiate proceedings regarding offenses. However, as the head of the Personal Data Protection Office points out, ensuring public order is not the responsibility of private persons, which means that the owner of the cameras is not entitled to replace state authorities in this matter.
Almost 27 thousand PLN fine for monitoring
The office ordered the cessation of the processing of data including the image and voice of people on public roads and neighboring properties by means of monitoring. This did not mean the need to dismantle the cameras on your property, but only to relocate them so that they did not cover the public road and neighbors’ property.
The property owner was given seven days from its delivery to implement the decision. He did not appeal against it to the Provincial Administrative Court (WSA) in Warsaw. As a result, the decision became final. However, the owner did not comply with the order, even after receiving a warning from the Personal Data Protection Office. Therefore, the Office initiated another administrative procedure, this time concerning the imposition of a fine for failure to comply with the order of the supervisory authority.
An administrative fine of PLN 26,711 was imposed on the owner. The Personal Data Protection Office points out that this is the first penalty of the president of the office related to private monitoring.
