HOW DOES IT WORK?
The term closed-circuit television refers to any television or video camera that delivers the content it records to a single, specific location or group of locations (a hard drive or bank of video screens). Theoretically, a CCTV system is a closed system, impossible to access from the outside (though that is less true than it once was). Hard drives or other memory devices can be internal to the camera, and can record days or weeks of footage.
These days, CCTV cameras often use known network protocols to transmit information to their storage or display media. That’s a fancy way of saying that the video feed from many cameras travels—unsecured and unencrypted—over the Internet to wherever it will be reviewed. Some cameras openly display their video feed online, either by design or by accident. Others can be hacked fairly easily.
Most of the other cameras we find ourselves commonly surrounded by operate on a similar principle. Cell phone and digital cameras record still photos or video directly to an internal memory device. Most cell phones and some digital cameras are capable of then transmitting that content to other devices or a website. Similarly, webcams record video and deliver the content to a computer hard drive or website or simply provide a live feed to the operator. Don’t be fooled into believing that just because a webcam is attached to your computer you’re the only operator.
For the most part, footage from a given camera is owned by the owner of the camera. If you are recorded in a public place or on the property of another person, the video record of your passing belongs to them. Your entry into a public space or a private space owned by another person constitutes permission. Privately, they are free to do whatever they want with whatever images of you they capture.
However, if they decide to begin posting things on the Internet, the law becomes more vague. Unless you’re doing something newsworthy—as vague and meaningless a word as there ever could be—you pretty much own the rights to your likeness. If you’ve been filmed without your permission and the owner of the film is realizing a profit, you have the right to demand a part of that profit or the removal of the video from wherever it’s being shown. If the video is painfully embarrassing and recorded somewhere you should have had the reasonable expectation of privacy (your high school AV room, for instance, or a friend’s bathroom), you’d be within your rights to demand compensation or the removal of the video or both.