Administrative fine in the amount of SEK 300,000 applied by Swedish Data Protection Authority to a housing company for unlawful video surveillance in an apartment building

The National Center for Personal Data Protection (NCPDP), for information and application purposes, communicates about the administrative fine in the amount of SEK 300,000 applied by Swedish Data Protection Authority to a housing company for unlawful video surveillance in an apartment building.

The Swedish Data Protection Authority received a complaint concerning video surveillance in an apartment building belonging to the housing company Uppsalahem. The camera’s monitoring area clearly covered two apartment doors, one of which belongs to the complainant and the other belonging to a resident whom has been subject to disturbances and harassment.

The housing company states that the purpose of the video surveillance was to resolve disturbances having occurred in the stairwell over time. “Even if the company had a legitimate interest for video surveillance, it was outweighed by the residents’ right to privacy,” says Gustav Linder, legal advisor at the Swedish Data Protection Authority.

In its decision, the Swedish Data Protection Authority concludes that the video surveillance in question, monitoring individuals in their home environment is particularly privacy sensitive. For that reason, the Swedish Data Protection Authority imposes to the housing company a fine of SEK 300,000 and the cessation of video surveillance in question.

The NCPDP, as national supervisory authority for personal data processing, emphasizes the responsibility of personal data controllers to comply with the provisions of legal framework on personal data protection and to ensure that personal data processing operations are in accordance with the legislation in force.