Warning over expansion of speed camera network

The use of speed cameras to catch drivers without motor tax and insurance could lead to a surveillance society, the Data Protection Commissioner warned today.

The Department of Transport is planning to extend the use of the countrywide network of cameras.

Data Protection Commissioner Joe Meade said he was concerned that further uses of speed cameras could follow.

“My main concern is that it was speed first, now it’s tax, will it be location later? Or will there be a central database of every car that passes through a particular speed camera and will it be kept ad infinitum?”

The office of the Data Protection Commissioner has told the Department of Transport that data from speeding cameras can only be legally used for speeding offences under Section 21 of the Road Traffic Act 2002. New legislation would be required for the cameras to gather data on car tax and insurance offences.

Mr Meade said he was in favour of detecting motor tax and insurance offences with adequate control.

“This has to be publicly debated and there has to be controls in place to ensure it’s limited as much as possible,” he said.

The Data Protection Commissioner’s annual report for 2004, which was published today, showed that the number of complaints to the office had increased from 258 to 385.

More than 40% of complaints concerned direct marketing, where people received unsolicited offers from companies.

Mr Meade said he was disappointed that the communications regulator (ComReg) and the phone companies had not set up a national directory database which would allow people to opt out from receiving unsolicited direct marketing calls.

“After a lot of consultation with this office, agreement was reached last July but so far the directory database has not appeared and therefore people are getting unwanted phone calls and this office is getting lots of complaints,” he said.

Mr Meade said he had initiated the first prosecution of a company for distributing spam to members of the public. The case against the telecommunications company, 4’s A Fortune, is to be heard in the Dublin District Court on May 11.