Privacy notice - footfall cameras and traffic and road monitoring cameras

Middlesbrough Council’s Town Centre Management Team is responsible for the development and strategic management of the town centre, coordinating the Council's resources and supporting our stakeholders, investors and entrepreneurs.

The Council’s Transport and Infrastructure Team are responsible for traffic management control which includes assessing traffic levels and its make up (i.e. number of cyclists/pedestrians/vehicles).

Using secure ‘footfall’ cameras, we capture images of visitors in a small number of areas in the town centre whilst the secure ‘Traffic and Road Monitoring cameras’ will capture images of individuals and number plate data. These images are only used for a very short time and are immediately anonymised.

The data protection laws allow us to use your personal data from the ‘footfall Cameras’ where it is in the council’s ‘legitimate interests’. We have assessed the purpose of the cameras and believe that the limited personal data that we collect is necessary to achieve it. We also believe that the limited impact on individuals does not override our interests. Personal data from the traffic and road monitoring Cameras is used complete our ‘Public Tasks’ under the Highways Act 1980.

The images are analysed and if a person or vehicle is identified they are counted by computer. This makes sure that any information kept is anonymous. However, there will short period of approximately two weeks after they are installed when it will be necessary for engineers to view the images they capture to validate and test that the cameras are working correctly. From time to time, engineers will need to view the images if a problem is reported with the cameras.

The images captured by the cameras are normally anonymised. The engineers who view the images for validation and testing purposes work for companies that are under contract with the council and must comply with data protection laws.

There are security measures in place on the cameras to make sure that the images are deleted immediately after use. Any images viewed by engineers are transmitted and viewed on secure computer systems.

The images taken by the cameras are normally anonymised immediately. Images are only stored by engineers for as long as is necessary to fix and problems with the cameras and they are then deleted.

Images are not transferred overseas.

Personal data will not be used to undertake direct marketing.

Your Information Rights are set out in law and, subject to some exceptions, you have the:

• Right to rectification - to ask for information to be corrected
• Right to erasure - to have your personal data deleted
• Right to object - to how your data is used
• Right to restriction - to request limits on how your data is used
• Right to portability - to request that we move your data to another organisation
• Right of subject access - to request a copy of data the Council holds about you

If you have a concerns about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, you should raise your concern with us in the first instance or directly to the Information Commissioner's Office. Visit the website of the Information Commissioner's Office.

If you would like to discuss anything in this privacy notice or your information rights, please contact:

The Data Protection Officer
Middlesbrough Council
PO Box 500, Middlesbrough, TS1 9FT
Phone: 01642 245432
Email: dataprotection@middlesbrough.gov.uk