In August 2009, the Southampton City Council required all taxis and private hire cars to include audio and CCTV recordings. Now the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has ruled that this is ‘disproportionate’ within the context of the Data Protection Act, and has issued an enforcement notice requiring the council to stop the practice by 1 November 2012.
“By requiring taxi operators to record all conversations and images while the vehicles are in use, Southampton City Council have gone too far,” said Information Commissioner Christopher Graham. The safety of drivers and passengers “has to be balanced against the degree of privacy that most people would reasonably expect in the back of a taxi cab. It is only right that the privacy of drivers and passengers is respected,” he added. However, the ICO does allow continued use of CCTV, although “local authorities must be sensible about the extent to which they mandate its use.”
Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch is delighted with the ruling. “As we have consistently argued, recording every minute of every passenger’s conversations in taxis is an unjustified and intrusive measure, and we’re pleased the Information Commissioner is now taking action against to stop Southampton council forcing taxi drivers to spy on their customers.”
Southampton council, however, is disappointed and is taking legal advice. “Data is encrypted, kept very securely and only downloaded if there is a specific complaint against a driver or if the police request access in order to investigate an alleged offence,” said Jacqui Rayment, Southampton City Council's deputy leader. She added that when the preliminary notice was received from the ICO in May, “the council responded to the Information Commissioner's concerns about privacy, but these reassurances have not been take on board in this judgement.”
But in the enforcement notice, the ICO states that the “data controller has given no satisfactory explanation to the Commissioner for its policy”, and goes on to require the council to “erase any personal data in the audio recordings... obtained as a result of the policy” and to “refrain from recording any such personal data in the future.”