Should motion activated camera doorbells be banned in communal space?
MP Kirsty Blackman is asking Aberdeen City Council to put a policy in place to ban camera doorbells in Council flats with communal areas after constituents complain of being filmed without knowledge or consent.
Should door bells with built in cameras, that are motion activated, be banned from Council flats with shared hallways?
That's what Aberdeen MP Kirsty Blackman is asking the City Council to consider.
Mrs Blackman has said multiple constituents had been in touch to voice their concerns.
She told Northsound:
"The problem with these is they record when you walk past.
"In communal hallways, particularly tenements and multi-storeys, you can't help but walk past other people's doors."
She said some tenants then end up being filmed without their consent or knowledge.
In these cases the door bells are motion activated, whereas some the technology will not turn the camera on until the doorbell is pushed.
She also highlighted that while the brand 'ring' is the most prominent in this space, there are others.
When the MP approached the Council to clarify their stance she was told there isn't one "as such" and that tenants would have to request permission to install such a device, and then conditional permission could be granted.
Blackman however told us this wasn't a strong enough protection for people's privacy and data protection.
She said: "I'm concerned that Aberdeen city Council are not taking this seriously enough."
Continuing the MP for Aberdeen North said:
"We've seen recently the reclaim the streets agenda, we've seen recently women standing up and talking about the threat they feel in the street.
"If young women are in properties and walking past doors with these potentially filming them, then that's even more of a concern.
"I know that people are concerned about the safety of their property, I know that in the vast majority of cases people are not doing this in an attempt to be naughty.
"A lot of people just won't know there are data protection regulations in place - I think it's the responsibility of the landlord to make that clear to their tenants."
Councillor Miranda Radley is expected to bring the issue to a council committee in the coming weeks.
An ACC spokesman said: “Our policy is consistent with current legislation and we are working to provide guidance on ICO requirements to tenants seeking to install such equipment.”