Govt are now charging a £60 annual fee to have a dashcam in my van

Advocado

I have received a letter from the ICO saying I may need to pay a £60 annual data protection fee.  I went online to check if I was exempt and the only thing that will cause me to have to pay is the fact I have a dashcam in my work vehicle.

This seems quite ridiculous.  The camera is there purely to collect evidence in the event of an accident, and it's going to cost me £60 a year.  Why?!

facade

Advocado said:

 The camera is there purely to collect evidence in the event of an accident, and it's going to cost me £60 a year.  Why?!

Because it counts as a cctv device, and falls outside the domestic exemption.

You would have to pay the fee if you store any customer data on an electronic device, such as names addresses & phone numbers on a 'phone or pc anyway.

If you don't pay, they can fine you, seems rather like TV licensing, they simply send fines to all the registered businesses that aren't paying the fee.....

motorguy

Advocado said:

I have received a letter from the ICO saying I may need to pay a £60 annual data protection fee.  I went online to check if I was exempt and the only thing that will cause me to have to pay is the fact I have a dashcam in my work vehicle.

This seems quite ridiculous.  The camera is there purely to collect evidence in the event of an accident, and it's going to cost me £60 a year.  Why?!

I'm sure you know the answer already - because you're running a business and that dashcam footage can be used to identify individuals therefore it falls under GDPR legislation.

I guess its going to be down to whether or not the benefit of the footage in the case of an accident is worth £60 a year to you?

AdrianC

"Your work vehicle".

This is your own business?
And you don't keep any customer data electronically at all for your business? Not even names and numbers in your phone?

Advocado

facade said:

Advocado said:

 The camera is there purely to collect evidence in the event of an accident, and it's going to cost me £60 a year.  Why?!

Because it counts as a cctv device, and falls outside the domestic exemption.

You would have to pay the fee if you store any customer data on an electronic device, such as names addresses & phone numbers on a 'phone or pc anyway.

If you don't pay, they can fine you, seems rather like TV licensing, they simply send fines to all the registered businesses that aren't paying the fee.....

So that means every single business, surely?  What business wouldn't store their customers' phone number for example?

My window cleaner has my number.  Does that count??

facade

Advocado said:

So that means every single business, surely?  What business wouldn't store their customers' phone number for example?

It is a nice little earner for the ICO

It is probably easier to pay the fee than waste the time proving that you don't need to, they will keep on and on with the letters, same as Capita with the TV licence.

Car_54

AdrianC said:

"Your work vehicle".

This is your own business?
And you don't keep any customer data electronically at all for your business? Not even names and numbers in your phone?

The data protection legislation covers all data, whether electronic or paper-based.

peter_the_piper

facade said:

Advocado said:

 The camera is there purely to collect evidence in the event of an accident, and it's going to cost me £60 a year.  Why?!

Because it counts as a cctv device, and falls outside the domestic exemption.

You would have to pay the fee if you store any customer data on an electronic device, such as names addresses & phone numbers on a 'phone or pc anyway.

If you don't pay, they can fine you, seems rather like TV licensing, they simply send fines to all the registered businesses that aren't paying the fee.....

Does this mean that any business building with CCTV also has to pay the £60 per year? Just curious as if so I wonder how many actually do.

user1977

peter_the_piper said:

facade said:

Advocado said:

 The camera is there purely to collect evidence in the event of an accident, and it's going to cost me £60 a year.  Why?!

Because it counts as a cctv device, and falls outside the domestic exemption.

You would have to pay the fee if you store any customer data on an electronic device, such as names addresses & phone numbers on a 'phone or pc anyway.

If you don't pay, they can fine you, seems rather like TV licensing, they simply send fines to all the registered businesses that aren't paying the fee.....

Does this mean that any business building with CCTV also has to pay the £60 per year? Just curious as if so I wonder how many actually do.

If you've got a building with CCTV, it's pretty unlikely you don't also have a bunch of other data which would require you to be registered anyway.

And if you want to check whether an organisation is registered, just look them up here: https://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Search

Advocado

peter_the_piper said:

facade said:

Advocado said:

 The camera is there purely to collect evidence in the event of an accident, and it's going to cost me £60 a year.  Why?!

Because it counts as a cctv device, and falls outside the domestic exemption.

You would have to pay the fee if you store any customer data on an electronic device, such as names addresses & phone numbers on a 'phone or pc anyway.

If you don't pay, they can fine you, seems rather like TV licensing, they simply send fines to all the registered businesses that aren't paying the fee.....

Does this mean that any business building with CCTV also has to pay the £60 per year? Just curious as if so I wonder how many actually do.

According to the online checker, a company with CCTV would have to pay.

I've run a business for fifteen years and have never had any knowledge of this ICO charge.  When the letter arrived I immediately assumed it was a scam.

AdrianC

Advocado said:

I've run a business for fifteen years and have never had any knowledge of this ICO charge.  When the letter arrived I immediately assumed it was a scam.

The ICO was founded in 1984 as the Data Protection Registrar, by the Data Protection Act 1984. It was strengthened by the Data Protection Act 1998, and again by GDPR in 2018.

How many other laws does your business fail to comply with?