It is notable that the Data Protection Commissioner was immediately on the line to Dublin City Council on Monday after it emerged the council had posted images of individuals allegedly dumping rubbish in a litter blackspot.
The images were taken from CCTV footage taken in the Five Lamps area off Amiens Street in the north inner city.
While carefully worded, the commissioner Helen Dixon’s statement is a clear indication her office is not happy with the publication of the images.
“It should be pointed out that the processing of personal data must be done fairly, demonstrate proportionality and not be overly prejudicial to the fundamental right of the individual to data privacy,” a spokeswoman for the commissioner said.
In other words, the publication of such pictures must be both necessary and proportionate to the objective Dublin City Council is seeking to achieve.
The council insists the poster is not in breach of legislation and said it believed the publication of the images is, in fact, a proportionate response to illegal dumping. It also confirmed that at least one individual has contacted the council asking for the picture to be taken down because “their neighbours would know who they were”.
But privacy experts said on Monday the council had no statutory basis for the publication of the images, that it had not informed people it intended to publish them and that it had no legal basis for doing so.
Additionally, their publication was not solving any of the crimes allegedly committed and so they did not enjoy the same legal protections as the footage used by gardaí on programmes such as Crimecall.
In that case, the footage is used for the detection and investigation of crime in the context of the statutory role of An Garda Síochána.
There is, of course, also potential for defamation if the alleged litter miscreants are misidentified on social media or in other forums.
Such issues arose several years ago in the case of a Dublin student who took action against YouTube, Facebook, Google and a number of websites after he was misidentified as the person in a video purporting to show a man evading a taxi fare.
On Twitter on Monday, at least one public representative inquired whether anybody recognised anyone in the littering pictures posted by the council.
Data protection consultant Daragh O’Brien said the fact the Data Protection Commissioner had responded so quickly, highlighted the sensitivity of the issue. Mr O’Brien suggested the publication of redacted images might have had the desired effect.
He said the statements from Dublin City Council also highlighted the need for organisations to invest in proper data protection training.
The council will need to review its decision to post the stills from the CCTV footage in light of the commissioner’s contact.
It may decide to continue with such a policy in the view that this will have a direct impact on dumping and littering offences. But it may very well face unintended consequences should it do so.