Homeowner Denied Access to Surveillance Footage After Break-In
A masked man committed two break-ins on the same day at Fred's home. Despite having surveillance cameras from Verisure, he is now denied access to the footage.
On the night leading to Wednesday, Fred and his family received an unexpected visit when one or more masked men entered their house—twice.
No one was home during the incident, but it was all captured on film by Verisure's cameras installed in the home. However, Fred has not been able to see what happened because Verisure does not grant him access to the footage.
"The police and security guards have done what they can, but it bothers me that Verisure refuses to release the footage from the cameras inside my own home. Why shouldn't I be able to see who has been in my house?" says Fred.
Runaround
He has been passed around between many different people at Verisure, who claim they cannot release the material due to GDPR and data protection laws.
"I cannot understand why there should be any protection interest for a masked burglar breaking into my home. It is my privacy that has been violated, not the perpetrator's," says Fred.
The day after the break-in, two police officers came over to secure evidence and take prints in the house. When they called Verisure, they too were denied access to the footage, which according to the alarm company, had already been sent to the police.
"I do not doubt that the images have been sent, but here stand two investigators on site with questions, and they cannot get answers because Verisure refers to GDPR."
Reviewing Processes
Verisure comments on the incident:
"In all critical situations, when a crime has been committed, we fully cooperate with the ongoing police investigation. Even in this case, we shared the requested material with the police, which happened within minutes after the incident. We fully understand the customer's frustration over not being able to get the material directly, but our handling of critical cases needs to follow certain processes in accordance with Swedish privacy legislation and GDPR," they write in an email to Expressen.
They claim they are taking it further.
"We will review our process to see if there are any improvements we can make. We are in contact with the customer in this current case, and we are doing everything we can to support them. Our focus is to do our best to protect and take care of our customers."