Building Security CCTV

Specific Privacy Notice

Glasgow Life is committed to protecting your personal information and respecting your privacy. 

Please read this privacy notice carefully as it contains essential information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal information. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us, our data protection officer or the supervisory authority in the event you have a complaint.

Last updated June 2024

We process your personal information when captured by CCTV. 

Glasgow Life is the operating name of Culture & Sport Glasgow, a Scottish Charity (Scottish Charity Number SC037844) and having its registered address at Commonwealth House, 38 Albion Street, Glasgow G1 1LH, is the controller of personal information collected for our processing purposes. See below for our contact details and our Data Protection Officer.

Building security CCTV systems in buildings and property used by Glasgow City Council or any of the Council's arms' length external organisations (ALEOs) is controlled by Glasgow City Council ("GCC" or "the Council"), a local authority established under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Its head office is located at City Chambers, George Square, Glasgow G2 1DU, United Kingdom.

For operational properties occupied by an ALEO (includes Glasgow Life), data is controlled jointly by the Council and the ALEO or ALEOs occupying the premises. Details of the council's ALEOs can be found at: www.glasgow.gov.uk/aleos. CCTV in the City Chambers complex is under the exclusive control of the Council.

You can contact the Council's Data Protection Officer by post at either of the above addresses, or by email at: dataprotection@glasgow.gov.uk. The council's data protection officer is also data protection officer for the ALEOs.

CCTV in secondary schools in Glasgow is managed on the council's behalf by 3Ed. This privacy statement does not cover CCTV in secondary schools.

The Council also operate public space CCTV. This is subject to a different privacy statement which can be accessed at www.glasgow.gov.uk/cctv.

Your information is being collected to use for the following purposes:

  • To help with the reduction or negation of criminal activity within the areas covered by the CCTV provisions
  • To help with the increased apprehension and prosecution of offenders
  • Risk management and environmental concerns
  • Increase in public safety & public reassurance
  • Reduction in the fear of crime
  • Footage of staff will be processed in accordance with the privacy statement covering managing the employment relationship between Glasgow Life and an employee.

CCTV is operated by the Council as part of their statutory functions as your local authority and by Glasgow Life in the properties we manage. Processing your personal information is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest by the Council and by Glasgow Life.

By its very nature, CCTV may capture more sensitive information about people. We or the Council also need to process this more sensitive personal information about you for reasons of substantial public interest as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018. It is necessary for us to process it to carry out key functions as set out in law.

We or the Council may also process data about the commission of offences. This is one of the main reasons for operating a CCTV system. Local authorities such as the Council are authorised to provide CCTV to promote the prevention of crime or the welfare of victims of crime. This power is contained in section 163 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.

Disclosure of images from CCTV will be controlled and consistent with the purpose for which the CCTV system was established. The Council and Glasgow Life have an obligation to assist in the prevention of crime and will therefore supply specific images which we are asked to provide Police Scotland or other crime detection agencies, provided we are satisfied that the request is connected to an investigation and that disclosure would be lawful and proportionate.

Security footage may also be requested by insurance companies, solicitors and others in connection with civil claims where the footage contains information relevant to the claim in question. We will only release footage in response to such a request if we are satisfied that disclosure is genuinely necessary to allow the action to proceed.

The Council and Glasgow Life will ensure that any external agencies that receives disclosed information are fully aware of and accept their responsibilities as outlined in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UKGDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. Where footage is passed to criminal investigation agencies such as the police, we consider that they are then the data controller of the footage.

To raise a data protection query with Police Scotland, or to request a copy of CCTV footage which has been passed to Police Scotland under it's control, please see More information section below.

Some security systems connect to the council's Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC). Security CCTV footage is retained by the Council or Glasgow Life for a set period; it is then automatically deleted unless there is a specific reason to keep particular footage for longer. Different retention periods apply to different CCTV systems dependent on system capabilities and local circumstances, but typically this will be between 14 and 31 days.

Specific reasons for retaining footage typically arise because the footage includes evidence of criminal behaviour or possible criminal behaviour. Where CCTV operators observe possible criminal behaviour they will alert Police Scotland to this fact. Police Scotland will generally request a copy of the relevant footage, which as a rule will be complied with. At the point of making such a request, Police Scotland become data controller of their copy of the footage in question.

Access to your information – you have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you.

Correcting your information – we want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date. Therefore you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

Deletion of your information – you have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

  • you think that we no longer need to hold the information for the purposes for which it was originally obtained
  • you have a genuine objection to our use of your personal information – see Objecting to how we may use your information below
  • our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.

Objecting to how we may use your information – you have the right at any time to tell us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes.

Restricting how we may use your information – in some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information that we hold about you or we are assessing the objection you have made to our use of your information. This right might also apply if we no longer have a basis for using your personal information, but you don't want us to delete the data. Where this right is realistically applied will mean that we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

Please contact us if you wish to exercise any of these rights.

GCC and Glasgow Life do not make use of profiling or automated decision-making in relation to building security CCTV. Some CCTV systems may be used for analytical purposes such as footfall count but this does not involve any form of identification of individuals.

Glasgow Life also makes use of camera systems in relation to sport development and automated lifeguard systems in some swimming pools but this is not CCTV.

For general enquiries, queries or exercising your data protection rights, you can contact Glasgow Life by:

We aim to resolve all complaints about the way Glasgow Life processes your personal information. You can contact our data protection officer about any data protection matter but you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Contact details for our data protection officer and the ICO are available on our website at www.glasgowlife.org.uk/privacy/data-protection-concerns.

Please note if your complaint is not about a data protection matter or concerns the handling of your personal information, please contact us using the complaints procedures in place at www.glasgowlife.org.uk/commentsandcomplaints.

For contact details for Police Scotland see More information below.

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