Caméra surveillance

Is an image-based fall detection system a surveillance camera within the meaning of the Act of 21 March 2007?

11 Feb 2021

It is legitimate, from the patient's point of view, as well as from the carer's point of view, to confuse a fall detection system with a surveillance camera. This article will describe how a fall detection system is not a video surveillance system.

What does the law of 21 March 2007 on camera surveillance say?

First of all, some information on the "camera law". The Cameras Act is applicable to the installation and use of surveillance cameras in open, closed and publicly accessible places with the purpose of

  • Prevent, record or detect offences against persons or property;
  • Prevent, record or detect incivilities within the meaning of article 135 of the new communal law, monitor compliance with communal regulations or maintain public order.

A surveillance camera is defined as "any fixed, temporary fixed or mobile observation system whose purpose is the surveillance and control of premises, and which, to this end, processes images". As a fall detector is a temporary fixed observation system used to monitor a place (or a person in a place), it will be considered as a surveillance camera.

A fall detector is not a surveillance camera.

However, the sensors serve different purposes than the prevention, recording or detection of offences against persons or property.

The Cameras Act does not apply if the sensors are only intended to detect a (presumably unintentional) fall and not offences against persons or property.

In the event of real-time viewing of an offence in the context of the "close monitoring" function (for example, a person assaulting another in a room equipped with a sensor), the carer may of course intervene, even if the purpose of recording an offence is not that pursued by the ISA system. Furthermore, the "close monitoring" function does not involve permanent viewing of images (the images of a sensor are only viewed occasionally, at the request of a member of staff) or the conservation of images (except in the case of a fall, including a fall following an assault), and therefore cannot fulfil the purpose of proving the commission of an offence against persons or property (again, except in the case of a fall).

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