Guidelines on video surveillance in vehicles (Dashcams) Switzerland

Wow...
Guaranteeing road safety is the duty of the police and not a matter for private road users. This means dashcams cannot be justified on road safety grounds
 

"Guaranteeing road safety is the duty of the police and not a matter for private road users. This means dashcams cannot be justified on road safety grounds"

Wow is right! Here we have a perfect example of an arrogant, bureaucratic, authoritarian attitude towards civilians and their personal rights from someone who doesn't seem to have the slightest understanding of the technology.
 
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I'd go along with that, they are not a road safety device, they do however protect your own interests against fraudulent claims
 
Man...this is a verrryyy interesting post, thanks to the OP for bring it up.

For u non-USA'ers, here's some thoughts about r legal standards & interpretations.

First...who exactly is writing this? Is it a dept. of the government? A political advisory group that influences governmental actions? Is this a interpretation of the current law by an arm of the government? This has to be made clear for those of us not familiar w/ Switzerland. If this is some outfit that has no jurisdiction, authority or much of an influence, then....who cares what they say?
But if they do have possess any of the proceeding, then this is defiantly a....WOW...type thread.

btw...I have experience in legal type stuff here in Calif & elsewhere.....but the first person who accuses me of being a lawyer get's placed on my Ignore list :p

Italics r copied from the referenced site

private video surveillance of public spaces

US law (each of the 50 states here have their own laws & courts) has mostly agreed that a person has "no expectation of privacy in a public place".

makes it impossible for the persons concerned to assert their personal privacy rights

I tend to do my personal private things in private & know that I would be a very naughty person if I did them in a public place. Now, if someone does get in my face or starts sitting on my lap (& is not a good-looking member of the female sex), that would be considered an invasion of privacy here, even in a public location.

Anyone within range of the camera is recorded indiscriminately. Doing this is totally disproportionate to the purpose of the exercise, as all road users come under general suspicion and a stockpile is made of processed data.


General Suspicion of WHAT EXACTLY?....man...that's a real mind-blower...

This procedure is rather different from what the police do, as they normally record data on patrol only if they observe a specific breach of the traffic regulations or at least have good reason to believe that such a breach is being committed.

If our police are on patrol & have them in the patrol vehicle, the cam is on (if it ain't, their supervisors r gonna want to know why not.)

the recordings constitute an unlawful breach of privacy
Who decided this?.....refer to my 3rd paragraph.

Guaranteeing road safety is the duty of the police and not a matter for private road users.

OK, I promise to never help another accident victim, flag down a car so he doesn't hit that 3 foot sink-hole that he can't see and just basically stop doing anything that might help a stranger.....I'll simply drive bye & yell, "Tough luck dude, call a copper!"

For these reasons, dashcams should not be used in public places.
Gosh, that settles it, doesn't it?
 
First...who exactly is writing this? Is it a dept. of the government? A political advisory group that influences governmental actions? Is this a interpretation of the current law by an arm of the government? This has to be made clear for those of us not familiar w/ Switzerland. If this is some outfit that has no jurisdiction, authority or much of an influence, then....who cares what they say?
But if they do have possess any of the proceeding, then this is defiantly a....WOW...type thread.
EDÖB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Data_Protection_and_Information_Commissioner
 
OH NO dont get me started on politicians and so called people in authority we are back to the inmates running the asylum yet again. Vive la Revolution......madame la Guillotine you are the best mistress a dashcam owner could ever wish to have......Come back all is forgiven.....Ipol..................:D.PS Vive and not Viva is the correct sentence I looked it up before I posted :)...........I was 39 years old the last time the guillotine was used in franceo_O....these days you can buy electric razors:p
 
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Basically these cameras record anyone on the street at the time. Normally the people concerned are unaware that they are being filmed; they only find out that a recording has been made when an accident occurs and they are shown the film. Data processing takes place in secret, which contravenes the principle of transparency.

Does this not sound exactly what the government is doing in most places of the world? Are there not cameras on most city streets used by police to monitor the activity of the private citizen without consent? Are we the private citizen worried more about dashcam users or the Government recording us without consent or knowledge? Are cell phones next? Hey that guy taking a picture of his family just took my picture without consent, FOUL! Police confiscate that camera!
Privacy is mentioned a few times. Who goes out in public and expects privacy?

Guaranteeing road safety is the duty of the police and not a matter for private road users.

Perfect then I know who to sue when in an accident. Apparently they didn't do a good enough job guaranteeing my safety.
 
Guaranteeing road safety is the duty of the police and not a matter for private road users. This means dashcams cannot be justified on road safety grounds
Same arrogance at the Austrian Data Protection and Information Authority.
 
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Well, I guess that's the whole point. There is literally a war going on against citizen's rights to document the behavior of public officials while at the same time the police are expanding their ability to monitor every facet of citizen's behavior everywhere.
Three US states (Illinois, Massachusetts & Maryland) have passed laws making it illegal to record an active duty policeman. This means that even if you accidentally capture a patrol car or officer on your dash cam you have committed a felony. In 2011 a man in Illinois was charged with three counts of eavesdropping for recording police officers inspecting vehicles parked on his mother's property and is facing 75 years in prison. I don't know if or how that case was resolved but the point is that such felony charges are usually reserved for murderers and rapists. At the same time, a new trend in many cities in a number of countries is that police are now wearing body cameras and record every aspect of their interaction with you no matter where they encounter you.

Unless we all want to end up living in a completely Orwellian dystopian society we need to find a suitable way to deal with the oncoming onslaught of ubiquitous video cameras. Only if citizens have the same ability to record their surroundings along with the authorities so as to address the inherent power imbalance that exists can we have a free and open society. The ability to record the police is one of the best ways to ensure that the police are held accountable for their actions. When authoritarian bureaucrats such as the Swiss "Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner" dictate what is "not a matter for private road users", citizens will continue to lose their liberties. There is really a "big picture" issue involved here that goes way beyond "road safety grounds".

For anyone interested, here is a link for the BODYCAM now sold to numerous police departments.
 
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$475 dollars for the Wolfcom 3rd Eye without accessories. Wow!....and $199.... soon to be $249 after 6/1/14 for the cheap one! Knowing the components that are likely inside these devices, the margins seem astonishing but I understand that is sort of normal in the law enforcement and government markets.
 
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That prize got me thinking on some movie i fogot the name off, but the dialog goes a Little like this.

Do you really think the US goverment pay 87.000 dollars for a toilet seat ( a stab at the Funding of Black ops )
 
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