Body-worn cameras for paramedics – yes, but with personal data security ensured

Body-worn cameras for paramedics are one of the proposals to improve the safety of emergency medical teams during rescue operations. However, the Personal Data Protection Office points out that such solutions must be legitimised by law.

Legal basis

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office does not have a legislative initiative. The role of the Personal Data Protection Office is to assess the emerging regulations at the drafting stage and to consult them at the earliest stage. The creation of such rules should be preceded by a data protection impact assessment, which should result in an assessment of the risks to the processing of data of different persons and different categories. In the case of rules on the activities of emergency medical teams, the initiative to create rules governing such activities should lie with the Ministries of Health.

Issues related to the processing of health data invariably remain at the center of the activities undertaken by the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, Mirosław Wróblewski. Pursuant to Article 52 of the Act of 10 May 2018 on the protection of personal data, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office requested systemic regulation of monitoring in medical services. In addition to the solution in the form of body-worn cameras, this includes issues of installing monitoring in medical facilities, in particular in places of permanent residence and convalescence of patients. The subject of monitoring is also taken up in the ongoing update of the Personal Data Protection Office guide dedicated to this issue.

In 2019, as part of legislative work aimed at adapting the current legal status to the provisions of the Regulation on the protection of natural persons 2016/679 of 27 April 2016, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office submitted his comments on the amendment to the Act of 8 September 2006 on State Emergency Medical Services, in which the Ministry of Health put forward a proposal to introduce body-worn cameras for emergency medical teams.

Personal data protection impact assessments

At that time, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office pointed out that such a solution must be subject to an in-depth analysis within the framework of the personal data protection impact assessment mechanism set out in Article 35 of the GDPR. However, the explanatory memorandum to the draft Act on State Emergency Medical Services did not contain such an assessment.

As pointed out by the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, a similar analysis was crucial for the proper assessment of the restrictions proposed by the drafter.