Taxis' internal surveillance cameras create stir over privacy

Legal experts have criticised the move to allow taxi drivers to make audio recordings of passengers
Friday, 21 July 2017 20:30

A new mobile transportation initiative by the İstanbul municipality has drawn an angry reaction from the public over enabling audio and video recording in cabs during travels, with legal experts describing the move as a violation of the right to privacy.

The iTaksi initiative, supported by an Uber-like mobile application, will introduce cabs with audio and video recording starting from August as a part of a circular issued by the security general directorate, Hürriyet Daily News reported.

The move immediately brought debate in legal terms with concerns over private life in Istanbul, which currently has 17,395 cabs.

“The voice and image of someone are a part of his or her private life and under protection, as required by personal rights. An intervention on someone’s private life without their consent is against the law. The intervention also constitutes a crime in accordance with the 134th article of the Turkish penal code," a lawyer said.

Having already been set up in a total of 3,000 cabs, there are cameras just above the rear-view mirror in iTaksi cabs. The cameras can record both inside and outside the cabs but there is no warning that there is audio and video recording inside the cab.

However, Yahya Uğur, the head of the Istanbul’s Chamber of Artisan Taxi Drivers (İTEO), stated the recordings in iTaksi were in line with the law, defending that the inside of cabs were public spaces.

Meanwhile, IT specialist lawyer Mehmet Ali Köksal said the implementation was not temperate.

"The fact that video and audio recording is always active inside cabs is also a big problem in terms of collecting the personal data in line with the law. The recording of that data is a violation of the right to privacy," Köksal said while urging an audio-only recording in emergency cases.

The Istanbul municipality stated camera records would be encrypted and could not be reached by drivers citing it was authorised to actively record to investigate legal incidents by the security general directorate.

Additionally, the Istanbul Bar Association filed a lawsuit on July 20 to the notice of the Security General Directorate over recording inside cabs and demanded the cancellation of the initiative.