What are the retention periods for CCTV images for a company?
More and more companies choose to install surveillance cameras on their premises and film their customers or employees. In fact, it reassures them because they have a sense of guaranteeing the safety of goods and people and identify possible perpetrators of theft or damage. However, there are rules and laws that must be followed when a company chooses to install surveillance cameras and film. In fact, you must have prior authorization from the employees to do so. Moreover, once the images are harvested, not everyone is authorized to access and view them. You will also know how long CCTV images are kept in a company.
Law regarding company surveillance
First of all, the employer is under an obligation to warn its employees that it plans to install cameras and record them in their workplace. He must obtain their agreement and justify his decision with valid reasons. For example, he may suspect his employees of theft or vandalism or bad deals and consider that installing a video surveillance system is the best decision. Once he sets up these cameras, he is prohibited from filming a workstation directly. For example, for an employee handling cash for example, the camera should film the cash register more than the employee. He also cannot film a break area, a rest area or the bathrooms, for example. Finally, the cameras should also not capture the union area or the area of staff representatives, as well as access to these areas. He is obliged to declare it to the works council as well as to the CNIL (National Commission for Computing and Liberties). As explained before, access to photos must be secure to prevent anyone from viewing them. Only persons authorized by the employer, depending on their position, can view images recorded by video surveillance cameras. It is important that these people are trained and know the rules for implementing a video protection system. For example, the manager of a store, the person in charge of security has the right or even if a person is accused of an act that he does not consider to have been committed, he has the right to view the pictures that concern him. Finally, there is a retention period for video surveillance images for a company and it is fixed and cannot be waived.
The interest of maintaining video surveillance images in a company
When a company decides to set up a video surveillance system in its premises, it thinks about adequate cameras and the preservation of images. In fact, the employer will consider the importance of keeping some extracts to have archives. This makes it possible to have evidence for a certain time and watch it again in case of an incident or to find a culprit. The company will then choose to place the cameras in strategic locations and will have the possibility to film only at certain times, specific time slots. So, for preserving the images, it will be easier because only the important sequences are there. It’s important to shoot with professional cameras to have sharp images and features that match. Some of these cameras may offer SD ports to store photos and keep them and others are connected to an application that offers a cloud that allows you to have more space and records without limits. Look for some of these models in multimedia product stores or on e-commerce sites that specialize in security such as ProtectHome for example. Finally, the installation of cameras will also allow you to prevent thieves from an attempted intrusion because they will be able to see the plates announcing that you are equipped with a video surveillance system. Or, if your business is the victim of a theft, you will have proof of the crime and it will help in your efforts to file a complaint. In fact, it is important to have the right reflexes in the face of theft and try to avoid them.
Retention period for company video surveillance images
The retention period for the company’s video surveillance images is a maximum of one month, which represents a relatively short period of time. However, companies usually only keep them for a few days and delete them relatively quickly compared to storage capacity. Sometimes they may choose to keep them for the authorized period if they need to review the images in the event of an incident to trigger procedures. At that time, the images will be used and extracted from the CCTV system to serve as evidence. However, you need to be careful because, as mentioned above, some cameras often have built-in SD cards and systematically store the images. Or, they connect to your smartphone through an application and automatically save video surveillance images to the cloud. Knowing that the retention period for the company’s video surveillance images does not exceed one month, it is important to be vigilant and delete them if necessary. In fact, you should not wait to delete the images, it is useless to take the risk, it is important to do it before the deadline of one month is reached. So it should be done at least a week before the end of the deadline and remember by putting it in several places, putting reminders and some know so that they all think. Finally, in addition to surveillance cameras, you can also opt for alarm installation.
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