That is not good advice, much better to claim that you are Canadian.
There are several European countries where they can be found illegal by the courts, but people use them anyway. Just use a discrete dashcam, don't point it out if you have an accident, and don't publish any video that shows people's faces or license plates until you have left the country! You are not going to get into trouble for having it, only for what you do with the footage.
Thanks for the reply! While a GoPro or old phone might be technically smaller and less conspicuous, I'd prefer to avoid any potential issues with the law, especially while traveling as a tourist. The short video was hilarious, thanks for the laugh!
After I saw your post I googled "Portugal dash cam law" and found;
As a tourist, you will get away with a warning for a lot of things, unless you are from the EU, in which case they will have no difficulty collecting the fines! In Portugal, I would be very surprised if you were treated worse for being a tourist.
Thanks for the help, @Panzer Platform! I didn't know just having a dashcam in Portugal is that serious of an offense, leading to a fine or even being arrested. I would definitely not take my chances, so I'm changing plans. I'm planning on getting the services of a local guide with a private car, similar to what's offered on "private car tours," https://gowithguide.com/portugal/guides instead of renting a car. I know this might not be the best place to ask this kind of question, but I'll ask anyway in case someone has some insights: Does anyone have experience in getting a local guide with a car in Portugal or in Europe?
I found this additional information about Portugal from the US State Department;
Although the press have published a number of articles saying that, I don't believe it is true! The only relevant laws appear to be data protection laws, and they are not going to get you arrested for possession of a dashcam.
I've been in taxis in Portugal, I would rather drive myself!
That is true in most countries when you are near military or high security establishments.
That’s a really interesting point about the privacy laws in the EU. It makes sense that the same principles would apply to dashcams DSLRs and phone cameras. It’s all about respecting individuals’ privacy, regardless of the device used to record. It’s definitely something to keep in mind for anyone planning to document their travels in Portugal or elsewhere in the EU.
One reason Google Street View might be comfortable operating in Portugal is their automatic blurring of license plates and faces. It seems like a pretty robust system, although there could always be occasional glitches.
We have pretty much the same data protection/privacy laws in the UK as in EU countries, from our time in the EU. The only real difference is in how those laws are interpreted in the different countries. In UK there is no problem unless the video is published, and if using a camera at a tourist/public site, the problems arise only if an individual becomes the subject of the video rather than them just being identifiable, and even then it is hard to get any sort of conviction. For a dashcam, the rules are probably the same although I don't think it has been properly tested in court yet. Business and home CCTV recordings however seem to be being treated somewhat differently since the purpose of such a system is clearly for security and nothing else, and so under the data protection act you are not supposed to keep security recordings for longer than necessary, and you have a duty to keep them secure. Potentially the same rules could be applied to dashcams if there was a bad court case which decided that, however I use a dashcam to record my trips as a tourist, so the rules should stay the same as for DSLRs and phone cameras.
There is a Tesla dashcam function *Sentry Mode" which does record within the car. Not sure what the legality of using it is in Portugal, but I think it only keeps one hour, and in some places may only record if it detects someone at the vehicle, so it may comply with CCTV laws. In Portugal you will not be allowed to publish the recorded footage without blurring plates and faces like Google Street View does.
Oh, that’s fantastic news! Thanks for sharing the link. It’s great to know that I can use Google Maps in Portugal in case I get lost.
You seem to be a well-traveled person, @kamkar. Thanks for the suggestion on a safe place to use a dashcam. However, I think it would be nice to experience driving old-school without a dashcam, or to hire a local guide with a car. At least if the guide has a dashcam, it would be the guide who will be fined, not me.
