YEREVAN, May 22. /ARKA/. A survey conducted by Personal Data Protection Agency, an affiliation of  the Armenian Ministry of Justice, has revealed that almost 34% of Armenians look at video surveillance in public places as a personal data protection problem, Shushan Doydoyan, the head the agency, told journalists on Monday.

"The problem is that video surveillance is often conducted by owners of private and public facilities not for ensuring security, but for watching employees or hearing their conversations, which is a violation of the relevant legislation.

She said depending on the degree of the violation of the law on personal data protection, entities could be punished by a fine in the amount of 50 to 500,000 basic salaries. According to her, it is necessary that every entity conducting video surveillance does it in accordance with the letter of the law. 

She said few people know that they have the right to demand their video recording by surveillance cameras installed in public places (shops, pharmacies, market places ), and the owner must provide it within 5 days.

In turn, the acting minister of justice  Artur Hovhannisyan noted that video surveillance is a method that allows to identify a person, and according to the Constitution of Armenia, everyone has the right to protection of personal data that must be processed either at the desire of the person himself or in accordance with the procedure provided by law.

He stressed that to avoid misunderstandings in the interpretation of the law, in public places there are notices warning that the area is under video surveillance because of security issues.

"Having entered such a place, a person is notified by the appropriate sign on the door. It means that he/she agrees to being videotaped  and therefore it is legal. Otherwise, if no notice is provided, the persons making video footage will be fined for illegal collection of personal data," Hovhannisyan said. -0-