Can I install cameras at any time in my business premises? The reporter investigated in depth

　　Investigate motives

　　In recent years, more and more merchants have installed cameras in their business premises, which has played a positive role in maintaining social order and preventing and resolving disputes. However, at the same time, the privacy violation problems caused by the irregular installation of cameras and the risk of information leakage have also caused a lot of controversy.

　　Does the merchant have the right to install a camera on the premises of the business, and how to install the camera correctly? Where are the boundaries of these cameras to obtain citizen information? How to ensure information security? With these questions in mind, a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily conducted an in-depth investigation and interview.

　　● Shopping malls, restaurants, playgrounds, hotels, small supermarkets... For reasons such as "safety considerations" and "fear of accidents cannot be said clearly", more and more merchants install cameras in business premises. Some of these cameras are installed after purchases from the Internet or cyber city, and some are carried by the cash register system itself

　　● Some cameras are installed in private rooms by merchants, some automatically identify personal information, and some are cracked, resulting in video data circulating and selling on the Internet, causing people to worry. It is illegal for merchants to obtain other people's biometric information through cameras, which seriously violates the personal information protection law

　　● At present, there is a lack of unified regulations for the installation of cameras in public places, and some industry-specific regulations have failed to cover various situations. The legislature shall make unified and clear provisions on the installation of cameras in accordance with the Civil Code, the Personal Information Protection Law, etc., and at the same time carry out full-chain supervision from the front end of camera production to the end of video content release

　　Recently, two women in Zhejiang found that there was a camera in the room facing the bed where they were doing spa after doing essential oils in a foot bath shop. The two women immediately went to the store manager to theorize, and the store manager argued that the police station had asked for the installation. The local police station responded that the installation of surveillance in public places is a public security precaution, but it has never been mandatory for merchants to install surveillance in private areas, and it is necessary to fulfill the obligation of reminder after installing monitoring.

　　Not only foot bath shops, the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily recently visited and investigated and found that the camera can now be seen in various places such as shopping malls, restaurants, playgrounds, hotels, and small supermarkets. Some cameras are installed in private rooms by merchants, some automatically identify personal information, and some are cracked, resulting in video data being circulated and sold online, causing people to worry.

　　A number of experts pointed out in an interview with reporters that although the relevant laws and regulations do not clearly stipulate that businesses cannot install cameras in public places, it does not mean that cameras can be installed at will. When installing cameras, it is necessary to comply with relevant national laws and regulations, follow the principles of maintaining public safety, and set up conspicuous prompt signs to ensure information security, and must not infringe on and leak the privacy of others.

　　Cameras cannot be installed at will

　　Be sure to set the Prominent Hint indicator

　　Why should merchants install cameras in their stores? The reporter visited a number of businesses in Beijing and Tianjin and learned that everyone was out of "safety considerations" and "afraid that something would happen and could not be said clearly" and other reasons.

　　A hot pot restaurant in Beijing's Chaoyang District not only installed cameras in the front desk, halls, corridors and other areas, but also installed cameras in private rooms. The person in charge of the store told reporters that the cameras were installed on their own initiative, mainly for the safety of the store, and once there were similar ingredients and health disputes, there was surveillance video to deal with.

　　The reporter noticed that some stores have a notice board: you have entered the monitoring area. Most stores do not post relevant signs, and stores or waiters do not take the initiative to prompt.

　　The owner of a small supermarket in Tianjin's Hedong District has also installed multiple cameras in the supermarket, and surveillance video footage is constantly presented on the computer screen on the cash register. The boss told reporters that after there is a camera, if something is lost in the store, the police can also show them and help solve the case.

　　For the source of the camera, according to the introduction of many merchants, there are two main channels: one is to buy from the Internet or the Cyber City and install it, and the other is to carry the cash register system itself. Most of the surveillance video is stored in cyberspace and can be stored for half a month to a month or so.

　　The reporter randomly interviewed a number of Beijing and Tianjin citizens, most of whom believe that as long as the merchant can do not install the camera in the private space, and at the same time ensure the security of information, then whether to install the camera is the business of the business, there is no big impact on their own shopping, consumption, in fact, it is also good for maintaining public safety.

　　"The cameras that merchants install in public places are more like invisible guards." Beijing resident Li Jie sighed that he once lost his wallet in the mall, looked around fruitlessly, and finally found it by checking the surveillance video of the mall.

　　At the same time, some respondents also pointed out that in recent years, some merchants have installed cameras in relatively private places such as private rooms in restaurants, KTV rooms and even foot bath shops, and some businesses have installed cameras covering fitting rooms, suspected of infringing on personal privacy.

　　So, does the merchant have the permission to install cameras in the business premises? What should I do with the information recorded by the camera?

　　According to Yue Tao, a lawyer at Beijing Yinghe Law Firm, at this stage, the mainland does not have specific legal regulations on the installation of cameras (closed-circuit television), mostly in departmental rules and local regulatory documents, such as the "Beijing Municipal Public Security Image Information System Management Measures", but it does not stipulate that businesses and private individuals cannot install cameras in public places.

　　"Most of the cameras in supermarkets and hotels opened by individuals are installed privately, but this does not mean that cameras can be installed at will." Yue Tao said.

　　He further explained that according to the requirements of the Personal Information Protection Law and other laws, the installation of image collection and personal identification equipment in public places should be necessary for maintaining public safety, comply with relevant national regulations, and set up conspicuous prompt signs, and also pay attention to not infringing on and leaking the privacy of others. If a camera is installed in a place involving personal privacy, it will produce infringement and is not in line with the relevant provisions of the Civil Code on the protection of personality rights.

　　"The relevant laws and regulations and departmental regulations on the installation of cameras almost only require the installation of CCTV monitoring equipment in public areas such as entrances and exits of business premises, main passages, cash desks, parking lots, and fire safety evacuation entrances and exits, and do not mention that cameras can be installed in non-public areas with a certain private nature, such as private rooms and rooms." Meng Qiang, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Institute of Technology, said that there are no specific regulations on who will install, how to keep the information after installation, and who will supervise. For example, the "Measures for the Management of Public Security in the Hotel Industry" formulated by the Ministry of Public Security only emphasizes that hotels should establish various safety management systems and implement safety precautions, but does not specifically address the installation of camera monitoring facilities.

　　Merchant cameras are easy to crack

　　Face recognition is illegal to obtain information

　　A fitting room in a shopping mall has no obstructions, and a camera is installed on the ceiling above the side; A camera was found in the locker room of a man's bathroom... Privacy violations and the risk of information leakage caused by irregular installation of cameras cannot be ignored.

　　Recently, some users have released surveillance videos on social platforms suspected of cracking cameras in public places such as schools and hospitals, which has aroused public concern and heated discussion. For a time, various ways and means of cracking cameras appeared on the network.

　　The reporter's investigation found that on some overseas social software, some people specifically taught how to obtain cameras in public places at home and abroad to shoot pictures. In some teaching videos, the reporter saw that after a simple operation, the other party's computer window showed the surveillance screen of several shopping malls and snack bars. These cracked videos may be uploaded to the network as a drainage tool.

　　According to Yue Tao, at present, the cameras in public places are basically divided into two types: one is the camera installed by the public security organs to maintain public order, and the cameras in this part are generally installed by special lines, specially managed by the public security organs, have good confidentiality, and the possibility of being cracked is very small; The other is a camera installed by individuals or businesses, which are generally connected to the Internet, and their maintenance encryption and key updates are generally slow, and the possibility of being cracked is very large.

　　"After the merchant installs the camera, it generally saves the storage content by itself, and there is no so-called desensitization, and even some merchants use the camera to collect personal information, which is illegal." Yue Tao said.

　　In addition, the reporter also noted that some businesses install cameras in business premises not only for security reasons, and some shopping malls install cameras with face recognition functions for passenger flow statistics.

　　An online store selling the "Smart Store Passenger Flow Management System" introduced on its homepage, which provides passenger flow statistics software that can accurately identify faces, customer group analysis, real-time push, remote store patrol, and can also customize and develop other functions.

　　In the case displayed by the online store, when a customer comes to a certain store, the camera-connected display screen will quickly identify the customer entering the store, link the customer's purchase record, consumption frequency, purchase preferences and other records, and also analyze the face characteristics of the customers entering the store, make blacklist labels for habitual thieves, competitors, etc., and automatically carry out early warning reports in the background.

　　"Provide the name of the store, the mobile phone number, there will be a technical staff reply, according to your specific requirements to provide the system, and then quote." Generally speaking, the system plus camera, a few thousand yuan can be built. The customer service staff of the above-mentioned online store said.

　　The reporter entered keywords such as "face recognition camera" and "store face system" in search engines and e-commerce platforms, and found that it was easy to find companies that provided similar services, and sales were not low.

　　Is it illegal for merchants to install such passenger flow statistics cameras in public places?

　　"It is already illegal for merchants to use face recognition cameras to obtain other people's biometric information, which seriously violates the personal information protection law." Yue Tao said that the face being photographed is sensitive information that can identify personal identity information, according to the provisions of the Personal Information Protection Law, the handling of sensitive personal information should obtain personal consent or even written consent, obviously many subjects who collect faces have not obtained the consent of the photographed.

　　Yue Tao said: "According to the Provisions of the Personal Information Protection Law, even after obtaining consent, it must be processed and stored through legal means based on legal, legitimate, and necessary purposes, otherwise it will constitute a violation of the law."

　　Improve legislation to clarify installation requirements

　　The whole chain of cameras strengthens supervision

　　"The installation of cameras can achieve real-time monitoring, and has the function of data preservation and playback, which can effectively prevent and stop illegal and criminal acts and provide investigation clues." During the epidemic prevention and control period, it also has functions such as epidemic prevention and control and body temperature detection. It can be said that the installation of cameras is an important means of safeguarding the public interest. Meng Qiang said, but the harm caused by some businesses not standardizing the installation of cameras is also obvious.

　　According to the "Face Recognition Application Public Survey Report (2020)" released by the App Special Governance Working Group established by the National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee and other institutions, 30% of respondents suffered privacy or property losses due to the leakage and abuse of face information.

　　In response to this problem, some places have begun to act. In March 2021, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Shenzhen Municipality, Guangdong Province, publicly solicited opinions on the Regulations on the Administration of Public Safety Video Image Information System in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (Draft), and took the lead in exploring legislation.

　　The draft proposes that the video image information system involving sensitive information such as public safety portraits, human bodies and license plates should be uniformly planned by the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Organs. When sensitive video image information such as portraits, human bodies, and license plates is used for public dissemination, unless otherwise provided by laws and regulations, protective measures shall be taken to protect private information involving the parties' individual characteristics, motor vehicle number plates, and other privacy information that makes it impossible for specific individuals to be identified and cannot be restored.

　　Meng Qiang believes that there is currently a lack of unified regulations on the installation of cameras in public places, and some industry-specific regulations have failed to cover various situations. At present, camera installation is more popular, data collection, personal identification is more convenient and intelligent, and it is easy to cause various risks. In such an environment, the legislature shall, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code, combined with the Personal Information Protection Law, make uniform and clear provisions on the installation of cameras, and improve relevant legislation.

　　He also suggested strengthening supervision from the front end and the whole chain at the end. For camera manufacturers, it is necessary to improve product security capabilities in accordance with the relevant provisions and standards of data security and information security, strictly perform the main responsibility of network security, strengthen the network security protection of the cloud platform, and implement the data security protection responsibility of the remote video surveillance App; For e-commerce platforms, it is necessary to strictly perform the main responsibility, comprehensively carry out investigations, and clean up and remove fake and shoddy cameras on the platform; For social software, websites, forums and other Internet platforms that have the obligation to review information release, it is necessary to timely and comprehensively clean up the illegal and harmful information related to the illegal and harmful information related to the black industry such as camera cracking teaching, vulnerability risk utilization, cracking tool sales, secretly shooting equipment modification, and sneak peeking at video transactions released on the platform.

　　"Public security organs should crack down on illegal and criminal activities such as providing camera cracking software tools, implementing attack control on camera equipment, and obtaining and selling citizens' private videos in accordance with the law, and severely punish lawbreakers and criminals." Departments such as internet information, industry and information technology, and market supervision should strengthen supervision and law enforcement, and severely punish social software, websites, forums, video surveillance cloud platforms, e-commerce platforms, etc. that do not implement the main responsibility. Meng Qiang said.

Source: Shaanxi Procuratorial Headlines