Dashcam footage not a privacy breach

Video taken during Park 'n Fly worker's drive.

Joyriding airport carpark attendant caught on camera.

Drivers can share dashboard camera footage with the public and not breach privacy law as long as videos do not identify people, the Privacy Commissioner says.

It comes after Neill Ellis uploaded footage from a 'dashcam' installed in his car which he claimed showed a Park 'n Fly driver at Auckland Airport taking his car on a wild ride. The video was viewed more than 80,000 times in two days.

Then Mr Ellis restricted its availability after Park 'n Fly director Mohammed Amil said he was considering legal options.

The growing popularity of dashcams was prompting debates around privacy, both in New Zealand and abroad.

A spokesman for the Privacy Commissioner said the driver in the viral video shot in Auckland could complain if he felt aggrieved - but Mr Ellis' footage did not feature images identifying the driver so the Privacy Act did not apply.

"Where it becomes a marginal call for us is that the video does capture a short conversation between the driver of the car and another person," Privacy Commissioner spokesman Charles Mabbett said.

"While a general member of the public would not be able to identify the person or persons by their voice and comments, the employer presumably would be able to.

"But the feeling here is that this then becomes less a privacy issue and more an employment issue," he added.

As well as forcing Park 'n Fly to respond to a slew of customer complaints, the dashcam video and its aftermath triggered debate on areas of the law involving licence plates.

By convention, some media outlets and members of the public still pixelated or censored numberplates in printed, uploaded or broadcasted images, but were not required to.

"Of the other vehicles it films travelling in front of it, it is no longer the case that owner details are available through the Motor Vehicle Register to other members of the public, as was possible previously."

However, Mr Mabbett said this did not mean the commissioner encouraged people to deliberately share footage showing other people's numberplates.