Cameras in prison cells might be unlawful says data protection office

The installation of surveillance cameras in the individual cells of Macau prisons, announced last week by the director of the Correctional Services Bureau (DSC) Cheng Fong Meng, may violate the SAR’s Personal Data Protection Act (LPDP), the Office for Personal Data Protection (GPDP) told the Times.

In response to the Times, the GPDP said that the LPDP “defines a set of strict provisions on the processing and protection of personal data. All the LPDP and its provisions must be observed during the processing of personal data by both public and private entities.”

However, the GPDP added that the DSC’s proposed measure was just a preliminary study at this point and they refrained from commenting further, citing that it was “not […] possible at this stage to carry out a concrete analysis of the issues involved.”

The department said that neither it nor the DSC had sought a formal legal opinion on the matter.

Cheng said on the sidelines of last week’s commemoration of the DSC’s anniversary that “we are going to study the feasibility of installing surveillance cameras in the prison’s individual cells and we will see if it goes against [violates] the relevant laws.”

He added that he believed installing the cameras in the inmates’ cells “won’t conflict with existing privacy rules” and clarified that “of course, we won’t install the cameras in toilets and bathrooms.”

The proposed installation of cameras is a preventive measure for cases such as a recent suicide case when a prisoner hung himself at the Coloane prison. The suicide is said to be the prison’s fourth such case in the past decade.

This is not the first time that such security measures have been targeted by the GPDP. In a recent policy address, Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak acknowledged that the GPDP had at least twice ordered the removal of some surveillance cameras in the region’s streets upon discovering that they could record residents’ activities inside their homes. Renato Marques