Vumacam regularly engages with relevant and affected stakeholders and would welcome meeting with any interested party to discuss compliance and take their suggestions into consideration in order to resolve any unaddressed concerns. Often security providers who wish to contract with Vumacam to monitor the feed in an area will engage with us and in turn will Vumacam as a solution to their clients.

If you think about it practically, there are millions of completely unsolicited cameras all across South Africa both in private and public spaces, not to mention… cellphone cameras. People could be filming at all times, anytime without your knowledge or with your knowledge, however, you don’t know who is watching the footage or what they are doing with the footage.  Similarly, home cameras and a number of cameras around homes and organisations are put up without anyone’s consent. It is not unreasonable to submit that CCTV surveillance is not a new or untested concept.

The right to privacy is best viewed as a continuation of protection. This expectation of privacy protection right is at its greatest for an intimate core of personal matters and spaces, where limitations of privacy can be reasonably justified. Protection gradually lessens as a person interacts with others and the public. It follows that, in general, people have a lesser expectation of privacy in public places than, for example, in their homes. CCTV surveillance of public streets is, therefore, less constitutionally problematic than CCTV surveillance of private areas.

Through true visibility and deployment in strategic locations for optimal coverage, Vumacam saw the opportunity of monitoring, with a purpose, and a benefit to all, whilst adhering to the guidelines as laid out by the PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION (POPI) ACT.