The dissemination of the footage recorded by Vumacam on its smart camera network falls within the definition of ‘processing’ in terms of POPIA (more on POPI here). Accordingly, any sharing of footage by Vumacam is regulated by POPIA, and Vumacam and the party receiving the footage must comply with the numerous safeguards built into POPIA to ensure that no third party data subject’s rights are infringed upon. For this purpose, when Vumacam contracts with third-party entities who wish to monitor Vumacam smart camera network footage, those third parties must enter into detailed agreements and show that they are, and will remain, compliant with the requirements of POPIA. The footage is never simply released by Vumacam without such assurances.  

One exception to the above is that any data subject may request access to any footage on which they have been captured (section 23 of POPIA), subject to compliance with the requirements of POPIA.

Handing over the footage to any third party can only be done where it is for a specific, explicitly defined lawful purpose. The recipient of such personal information would similarly be required to show that it complies with the provisions of POPIA relating to the protection, retention and destruction of such information (see sections 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19 and 22 as examples of some of the requirements which any responsible party must comply with).

The above precludes Vumacam from making its smart camera network footage available to members of the public generally.