Legal

Manila Now Requires CCTVs In All Business Establishments

Posted by dtaitano 1:26 pm Categories: IP Cameras, Legal, Retail. Tags: , , , .

MANILA, Philippines — The San Juan City government is now requiring business establishments primarily handling financial transactions to equip themselves with security cameras and other surveillance systems before the end of the year. City ordinance 7, series of 2013, mandates business establishments, specifically banks, pawnshops, money changers, convenience stores, gasoline stations, money transfer centers, bills payment centers and supermarkets, to operate video surveillance and monitoring systems not just inside their stores, but also in the vicinity of their operation. The ordinance, enacted by the San Juan City Council and approved by Mayor Guia Gomez earlier this year, notes that “incidents of robberies and burglaries have recently been hogging the news and have even resulted to the loss of innocent lives.” The ordinance also said that these crimes could somehow be prevented by surveillance and monitoring systems installed in businesses, which would make it easy for the police to monitor events and investigate crimes. The ordinance compels these business establishments to install not only plain security or closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, but also equipment which would allow the storage of camera footage, transmission of footage to remote video monitoring stations, and the triggering of alarms for violations of security rules. “The daily video recordings must be stored and preserved for a minimum period of at least 30 days for review purposes and reference unless its preservation is required by a court order, by the police, or the city mayor,” the ordinance read. Authorized local authorities and the police should also […]

FTC settles with Trendnet after 'hundreds' of home security cameras were

Posted by dtaitano 3:38 am Categories: IP Cameras, Legal, Surveillance. Tags: , , .

Home security camera maker Trendnet has reached a settlement with the FTC over charges that it failed to protect customer privacy after a massive security vulnerability was discovered and exploited last year. The breach allowed hackers to  watch and monitor total strangers by tapping into live video feeds from thousands of the company’s internet-connected cameras. After a blog published a step-by-step walkthrough revealing how to remotely access the cameras, a huge list of working video feeds made its way onto Pastebin, where it saw over 87,000 hits. The FTC is none too pleased with the gaping security hole, nor the fact that Trendnet "exposed the private lives of hundreds of consumers to public viewing on the Internet." Hundreds of cameras were compromised In its complaint, the commission says Trendnet "failed to use reasonable security to design and test its software," also alleging that the company, as far back as 2010, "transmitted user login credentials in clear, readable text over the internet." The resulting settlement requires Trendnet to keep a close eye on its privacy policies; moving forward, it is barred from "misrepresenting the security of its cameras or the security, privacy, confidentiality, or integrity of the information that its cameras or other devices transmit." But the camera marketer must also take steps to prevent this catastrophe from repeating itself. Trendnet will need to establish a "comprehensive information security program" designed to spot and resolve potential intrusion risks before they can be exploited. And it will do so under a watchful […]

Video Surveillance, Facial Recognition Technology, and the Law

Posted by Stan Lewis 1:56 pm Categories: Law Enforcement, Legal. Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Omnipresent video surveillance and facial recognition technology have staked a new frontier in the American legal system, as local communities, state officials, and even the U.S. Supreme Court consider questions […]