Hacker News Reader

Comment by kuschku | Hacker News Reader

Depends on where you live. In Germany any CCTV recording of a public place is automatically illegal. There’s a handful of exceptions (for example, for the parliament), but generally, this holds true.

Opt-in is what’s legally required, and should be the default.

View on HN

How can all the people passing before the camera to opt in?

Exactly. That’s why you don’t put up cameras in the first place.

So only the government can record what's happening, and if private citizens or companies do so they are shamed and jailed?

The government can’t do that either, they’s the point (except for a handful of rare exceptions).

The police can’t even film protests to identify protestors.

You're saying the German government has no video cameras on any traffic intersections / public areas period?

Unless there is a specific situation that there is a threat there, and a warrant for that situation, no.

For traffic situations there are specialized systems that open a physical filter in front of a camera lens only if someone is detected to be speeding, and the camera is then limited to that lane, for that short moment.

That's rather much the point, they can't. Therefore the service would be illegal in Germany.

Sometimes things are illegal and you can't get around it. Just because the company spent a lot of effort on it doesn't mean anything.

Alexro, there are clear and large signs about the cameras at the entrance to our neighborhoods.

Our neighborhoods are not large public roads, they are typically 100-400 home communities. You would never have to enter the community.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com