Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection received a complaint from a relative of a resident of a residential care home for persons with certain functional impairments (so-called LSS housing) in Gnosjö municipality, claiming that the resident was being monitored illegally. The Authority initiated an audit of the LSS housing and can conclude that the resident in question indeed was monitored in their bedroom in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, and the Swedish Video Surveillance Act.
"The resident has been monitored in the most private sphere of the home, which led to a severe and unjustifiable interference with the residents' right to privacy" says Jeanette Bladh Gustafson, lawyer at Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection's unit for video surveillance.
The Social Welfare Committee in Gnosjö, which is responsible for the LSS housing, has stated that the resident's disease profile has created major difficulties both for the resident himself and for the staff, and that situations have arisen where there has been a risk to the life and health of the resident. There has also been situations where the staff has suffered injuries.
Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection shares the assessment of the Social Committee that there has been a need to take measures to manage and improve the situation.
— However, it should be possible for the LSS housing to achieve the same purposes as those for which the video surveillance was carried out with less privacy-intrusive means.
Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection concludes in its decision that there is no legal basis for the video surveillance, that an impact assessment has not been carried out before initiating the video surveillance and that the controller has failed to clearly inform about the video surveillance. For those reasons, Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection issues an administrative fine of SEK 200,000 against the Social Welfare Committee.
Read Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection's decision in pdf format (Swedish only) (pdf, 475 kB)
For more information, please contact
Lawyer Jeanette Bladh Gustafson, telephone +46-8-657 61 32
Press office, telephone +46-8-515 15 415