Under the GDPR, video surveillance is considered a high-risk operation requiring particular attention, especially if public areas with a large amount of foot traffic are monitored. While proponents stress the ability to deter vandalism and identify criminals, the same technology can be used to ‘identify’ passers-by and compromise their privacy, without them being aware of the fact.

Generally, the legal grounds for video surveillance will be based on legitimate interests of the company (protection of property, prevention of offenses, etc.). You are required to perform a data privacy impact assessment (DPIA) with help of your data protection officer for every surveillance system you have set up. In it, you should list the specific processing activities you want to perform and the reasons why video monitoring is necessary in the first place.

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