Ring Doorbells – You can ring my bell!

Posted onJanuary 16, 2022

The County Court has upheld claims for harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (“PHA”) and breach of the Data Protection Act 1918 (“DPA”) arising out of the defendant’s use of a video doorbell and security cameras.

The claimant, Dr Mary Fairhurst, and defendant, Jon Woodard were neighbours. Dr Fairhurst brought proceedings against Mr Woodard in relation to a “Ring” video doorbell and three security cameras which Mr Woodard had installed at his property, including a spotlight camera, pointing towards a carpark and a driveway.

Dr Fairhurst claimed that Mr Woodard had consistently failed to be open and honest with her about the security devices, had unnecessarily invaded her privacy by his use of them and had intimidated her when challenged and that this amounted to:

A nuisance;
Breach of the DPA; and
Harassment contrary to the PHA.

She sought damages, an injunction (including for removal of various of the devices and forbidding the installation of further surveillance cameras) and costs.

The Judge rejected the claim for nuisance, but upheld the claim for breach of the DPA and harassment. The Judge found that Mr Woodard had engaged in a course of conduct which amounted to harassment under the PHA through various actions, including lying about some of the cameras being dummy cameras and threatening to set up more cameras, including concealed cameras.

Regarding breach of the DPA, the Judge determined that Mr Woodard’s processing of personal data via the Ring doorbell and cameras as unlawful and in breach of the first three data protection principles under the General Data Protection Regulations. Mr Woodard was unable to satisfy the court that he could justify processing based on one of the grounds set out in Article 6(1) of the UK GDPR and, because he was found to have misled Dr Fairhurst about how and why the cameras operated, he was also held to fail to process personal data fairly and transparently and comply with the second principle. The data minimisation principle was breached to the extent that audio data had been collected by Mr Woodard via the Ring doorbell and certain of the cameras, beyond the boundaries of his property.

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Ring Doorbells – You can ring my bell!

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