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Looks Like Malta Doesn’t Have A Right To See Deal Giving Police Access To Hundreds Of Cameras

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Malta’s police have been given access to all the island’s traffic CCTV cameras at the swipe of a pen, but it seems the public doesn’t have a right to know the terms of this deal.

The police have turned down a Freedom of Information request by Lovin Malta for a copy of the deal that it recently signed with Transport Malta on the grounds that “there is good reason for withholding the document requested”.

No further reasons were given, other than a citation of the Freedom of Information law, which gives public authorities quite a bit of leeway in refusing requests for official information, and Lovin Malta has filed an internal complaint over this refusal.

The deal, signed on 10th September, is expected to save time for the police, who will now be able to instantly access the cameras without first submitting a request to Transport Malta for specific footage.

However, it has also given rise to serious privacy concerns, with an expert in the field, speaking on condition of anonymity, questioning whether it is indeed compliant with data protection laws.

The Data Protection Commissioner hadn’t been consulted at all prior to the signing of the deal and has launched an investigation into whether the processing of personal data is being carried out in accordance with data protection law.

This law states that police can only collect and store data for specified and explicit purposes for fighting crime, that data which can identify individuals must be deleted once it is no longer needed, and that appropriate security must be applied to the data.

Other processing activities are subject to the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Lovin Malta has sent these questions to the Home Affairs Ministry a few weeks without a reply.

-Will any police officer be able to access the cameras whenever they want or will they have to request authoritisation from their superiors? 

Will the cameras, the ones that are installed and the ones which will be installed, make use of facial recognition software?

-What disciplinary steps will be taken if private images from these cameras end up getting leaked to the public?

What do you make of this deal?

READ NEXT: Malta’s Police Bypassed Privacy Scrutiny Before Gaining Access To Hundreds Of CCTV Cameras

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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