Surveillance policy

The University of Copenhagen performs TV surveillance of buildings and areas at the University’s disposal.

The purpose of the TV surveillance is to prevent crime such as burglary and vandalism and assist the police in connection with the investigation of crime.

In some buildings in which employees move about outside normal working hours, TV surveillance is used to create security for the employees and to prevent robbery, assault etc.

1.1  Rules applied

The University of Copenhagen complies with the rules in the Danish Act on TV Surveillance as well as the rules in the General Data Protection Regulation and the Danish Data Protection Act.

Under the rules of Article 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation, the University of Copenhagen must, as data controller, inform the monitored persons (data subjects) about their rights in connection with the processing of data.

The University of Copenhagen records and processes surveillance images pursuant to Article 6(1)(e) of the General Data Protection Regulation.

1.2  Processing and storage

The University of Copenhagen processes surveillance images as confidential information. The surveillance images will be processed and stored on the University’s network drive and only specially designated employees have access to the images.

Surveillance images are stored at the University of Copenhagen for 15 days, i.e. the recording date and the following 14 days. The surveillance images will then be erased automatically. No back-up is taken of surveillance images.

If the University of Copenhagen receives a request for access to surveillance images in accordance with Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation and section 22 of the Danish Data Protection Act, the surveillance images in question will only be erased when the processing of the request for access and any complaint has been concluded. The surveillance images will then be erased.

1.3  Disclosure of surveillance images

Surveillance images will not be disclosed to other parties unless the University of Copenhagen receives a request for disclosure of surveillance images, and such disclosure may be done in accordance with the rules in section 4 c of the Danish Act on TV Surveillance.

In accordance with the Danish Act on TV Surveillance, the University of Copenhagen may disclose surveillance images if

  • The person in the surveillance image has granted his or her consent
  • The University of Copenhagen is under a statutory obligation to disclose the images
  • The police request surrender of the images for crime investigation purposes.

1.4  Access to data

Persons whose movements have been recorded by a TV surveillance camera can contact the University of Copenhagen to obtain a copy of the surveillance images recorded at the University of Copenhagen.

1.5  Rectification of data

If the data subject believes that inaccurate data have been registered, the data subject can ask the University to rectify the data. This means that the University will correct the data, or note that the data are inaccurate, and register the correct data.

The data subject is entitled to demand that the data controller must disregard the data until the accuracy of the data has been verified. Data subjects are also entitled to demand that the University must refrain from using data about them if they are no longer needed.

However, participants in research projects are not entitled to demand rectification of research data.

1.6  Objection

Data subjects have a right to object to the processing of the data if the University processes the data as part of a task imposed on the University. This means that data subjects may refuse to let the University process the data

1.7  Withdrawal of consent and erasure of data

If the University of Copenhagen has obtained consent from the data subject to process the data, the data subject may withdraw the consent at any given time. The University therefore cannot continue to process the data after the consent has been withdrawn.

The data subject has the right to have data which the University has registered about the data subject erased if the data are no longer necessary for the purpose for which they were collected. The data must also be erased if the data subject withdraws the consent to processing of the data or if the data have erroneously been processed in an unlawful manner. The data subject is not entitled to erasure of data archived in the University’s archiving system in accordance with the Danish Archives Act (Arkivloven).

1.8  Data Protection Officer

The University of Copenhagen has a Data Protection Officer who data subjects can contact if they have any questions about the processing of data about them. You can contact Data Protection Officer at the address dpo@adm.ku.dk.

1.9  Complaint to the police and to the Danish Data Protection Agency

Data subjects may lodge a complaint about the processing of surveillance images with the Danish Data Protection Agency (Datatilsynet) by writing to dt@datatilsynet.dk.

A complaint about the installation of TV surveillance cameras may be lodged with the police.