The Privacy Commissioner has released new guidance on how businesses, local government and other agencies can use CCTV (camera surveillance systems) while still protecting privacy. "CCTV is proliferating, in New Zealand as well as overseas," said Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff. "It seems that everywhere you look, someone has a camera trained on you. This raises questions such as what exactly the images are being used for, how secure they are from misuse or unauthorised viewing, whether the cameras are unnecessarily intrusive and so on." "We saw a real need for the Privacy Commissioner's Office, as the watchdog in the privacy area, to help businesses to deal properly with the privacy issues that CCTV systems create. There was very little guidance available to business and government, and so this will go some way to filling that gap. "CCTV has an important role to play in detecting and prosecuting crime, and even deterring some types of crime. But this does not need to be at the expense of privacy. People need to trust that the information the cameras collect will not be misused," said Marie Shroff. The new guidance material gives businesses and agencies practical and easy-to-read advice about such things as: deciding whether CCTV is right for them; planning the system properly; selecting the appropriate technology and positioning cameras; making employees, customers and others aware that CCTV is operating; storing and retaining the images; and giving people access to images of them. To download the guidance (no charge), go to: www.privacy.org.nz