Dashcams: Balancing safety with privacy and vulnerability

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Not all that long ago, there was a popular saying, “the things you see when you don’t have a camera.” (The American version was the things you see when you don’t have a gun.) Now, everybody has a camera. (No comment on the other.)

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I have a NextBase dash cam stuck to my windshield. It has a little rear-facing camera I can insert, and it also has audio — which I found out when I played back some footage and heard myself swearing at someone who cut me off. While I obviously want to capture the next meteor strike , it will hopefully pay for itself if someone backs into me in a parking lot or tries to steal my catalytic converter. 

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Dashcams are rapidly becoming a dual-edged sword of safety and privacy: is my brother-in-law recording everything I say? Is that Uber driver recording the conversation a co-worker and I had in the back of the car?

A few years ago, a rideshare driver in St. Louis got busted for live-streaming hundreds of his passengers on a social media app. He drove for both Uber and Lyft, who canned him, but not before hundreds of interactions those passengers no doubt thought were private were being used as fodder for masses of anonymous commenters. 

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In March of this year, however, a San Francisco Uber driver captured footage of three women passengers. Two wouldn’t wear legally required face masks, and when he pulled over to turf them, one coughed on him and attempted to take his phone. It is then alleged they hit him with pepper spray. The footage promptly led to police charges, showing the flipside of proof of what takes place inside a rented ride. Earlier this year, a Quebec cabbie also got some justice after a racist attack was captured on camera.

According to North America’s largest dash cam supplier , “Canadian rideshare and taxi passengers have a distinct advantage with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), a Canadian consumer-privacy law. Uber, Lyft and taxi rides all fall under PIPEDA’s privacy protections, in turn requiring “knowledgeable, informed consent” for the collection, use and disclosure of a person’s personal information, including video surveillance…in Canada, the consent has to be explicit and informed…Traditional taxi companies in cities such as Vancouver and Toronto go a step further: only police are able to access the footage.”

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Dashcams, like most technology that is evolving far faster than the law can keep up with (let alone anticipate), present new questions every day. While numerous Youtube sites and websites sport the best- (meaning worst-) captured videos of terrible drivers, police know there is value far beyond entertainment. It is common for reports of incidents under investigation to now post the ubiquitous request, “police are asking anyone with dashcam footage taken in the area at the time of the incident to please contact them.” It’s often about crashes, but sometimes it’s about murders . 

There are times you need to know when to turn off your dashcam. At the American border, which will someday be open again, it is recommended you don’t try to film your crossing without asking permission. Similarly, last year the Motor Dealers Association of Alberta pried open the debate as to whether a car owner has the right to leave a dashcam operating while a technician is working their vehicle. 

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Turns out using your camera the way you might a baby monitor for your kid is a no-no; “Section 184 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to record a private conversation (In other words, one that you are not part of) without the parties’ consent. However, in order to be guilty of that offence, the person recording the conversation needs to intend to make the recording of that specific conversation,” stated a dealer memo . A tech disconnected a camera; a customer complained. We’re only seeing the tip of courts interpreting legal applications of dash cams.

Road rage is on the rise. If you’ve armed yourself with a device that proves someone else’s wrongdoing, it’s tempting to do some version of a citizen’s arrest. The thing is, police aren’t interested in who cut you off — unless it turns out you’ve captured the lead up to a later crash. For the most part, the value of a dashcam to you is to provide your insurance company with valuable information about you said/they said situations. As IBC says , “ if someone is involved in a crash or they witness something, the good thing about having dashcam video is it really is an impartial and unbiased witness to the events.” Even if you don’t catch who hit you, “an accident would be deemed a hit and run when the other vehicle causing the damage is not identified and/or flees the scene. Even with video, if it doesn’t identify the other vehicle, it would still be considered a hit and run by the insurer,” according to Andrew Bartucci at IBC. Be careful, though. “It does work both ways. If the video evidence showed you to be at fault, it would negatively affect your driving record and could affect your future premium.” Dashcams are still a legal grey area.

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Even more important is that as fraud goes up, dashcam footage can be invaluable in proving you’ve been involved in a staged crash. Insurance adjusters are good at figuring out what actually happened, but in the event of a “tie”, you could be stuck with half the blame in a given situation. That will increase your rates, and dash cams are as little as a hundred bucks. 

One other word to the wise when it comes to surveillance. Your phone is likely loaded with apps (like Facebook and Instagram) that are recording and listening constantly. Before you get too worried about your Uber driver, make sure you know how much information you’re already putting out there.