Ciechi Ardizzone Gioeni di Catania – €5,000 Fine (Italy, 2021)

The Italian DPA (Garante) has imposed a fine of EUR 5,000 on the Ciechi Ardizzone Gioeni di Catania residential home for blind people. A visitor to the residence filed a complaint with the DPA. He based this on an installed video surveillance system in the accommodation. The video surveillance system recorded, among other things, the corridor connecting the accommodation with the communal showers. Moreover, the footage was not only recorded but also displayed in real time on the monitors of the concierge staff, creating the risk that the images could also be inadvertently seen by visitors or suppliers. During the course of the investigation, the institution's administration justified the installation of the video surveillance system by citing the need to prevent theft and ensure the health of residents by preventing unauthorized access during the pandemic period. The DPA found that the institute thereby violated the principles of lawfulness, transparency and data minimization. The fact that, as claimed by the institute, the passage of the guests to the shower rooms was filmed only occasionally and for a short duration, and that the quality of the recordings was not 'perfectly clear,' does not resolve the unlawfulness of the recordings. Also, the DPA noted that some procedural precautions - such as scheduling time windows to turn off the cameras to allow guests to visit the shower rooms without being filmed, or temporarily ensuring the security of the locations through alternative measures, such as the use of security personnel - may allow the institute to pursue the purpose of the video surveillance in an equally effective manner and avoid unjustifiably restricting the freedoms of the data subjects. Furthermore, the DPA found that the institute had not properly fulfilled its duty to inform. The institute had only provided the data subjects with detailed information about the video surveillance system on the bulletin board after the investigation had begun. However,