The Prague Post
http://www.aaaradiotaxi.cz/index.php?xSET=lang&xLANG=2
November 22nd, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Prague accommodation

Home » Archives » Business

Home security goes mobile

High-tech surveillance offers safety, peace of mind

By Victor Velek
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
December 5th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
GuardSec General Manager Aleš Hill presents the Omnius mobile home surveillance service Nov. 28.
Say a burglar breaks into your weekend cottage when you’re back in the city during the week and steals your stereo, TV and computers.
Now you can see what the burglar is doing, as he does it, if you invest in a new surveillance system from a number of private security firms in the Czech Republic.
The residential surveillance market has grown rapidly in the last year or two. More than 1,102  (residential and business) cameras are now registered with the national Office for Personal Data Protection (ÚOOÚ) as recording and storing video data. The office doesn’t differentiate between residential and business camera surveillance systems.
At private security company GuardSec Services, you now can automatically receive an alert e-mail or SMS on your cell phone when the intruder gets in, and a camera records the scene for real-time viewing. If you get the alert in time, you can call police and tell them to check your house while the intruder is still there.
That’s just one illustration of how new, cheaper surveillance technology can now help residential customers, said Aleš Hill, head of GuardSec Services.
In another scenario suggested by the company, customers might want to check up on their home-bound relatives when they’re away.
“It’s natural that people want to have control over their property and over the safety of their kids or elderly parents,” Hill said.
In recent years, customers have been able to monitor their homes via the Internet or through e-mail and SMS alerts. It’s only since mobile phones have added Internet capability that security companies could offer customers the real-time video component, Hill said.
With police solving only about 20 percent, or 11,000, of the more than 53,000 burglaries reported nationwide in 2006, homeowners are looking for more ways to protect their properties. More than 100 security companies offer house and car alarm systems in Prague.
At GuardSec, all recorded sequences are stored on a remote server, so that if the intruder breaks or dismantles the camera system, it doesn’t affect the data that’s been collected.
“Wherever they are, people can see what is going on in real time at the premises they monitor,” Hill said. With new motion detection devices, clients are linked to their properties even when they are not actually connected to the monitoring system, he said.
In addition to the monthly fee, customers must make an initial one-time investment in hardware — one or more Internet cameras for about 4,000 Kč per camera, and an Internet connection of several hundred crowns per month, Hill said.
“It is an easy-to-use, effective protection system for a low price,” Hill said.
However, some competitors in the local security industry are skeptical about GuardSec’s concept.
If the cameras are not backed by a professional monitoring center 24 hours a day with staff ready to intervene whenever needed, those systems are of little practical use, said Jan Vorlíček, chief executive officer of Griffin, another Prague-based security services provider.
Hill said a monitoring center would be good to have but that the GuardSec Services philosophy is different.
“Omnius gives a large number of people an opportunity to actively participate in their property protection via familiar gadgets — the computer and mobile phone,” he said.
Big brother
At the same time, the rise in the use of camera surveillance systems raises concerns among privacy protection experts. The rapid expansion of camera surveillance systems poses threats to individual privacy rights, according to ÚOOÚ’s 2006 annual report.
There is no special law regulating the use of camera systems. Only general regulations of the personal data protection law are applicable, according to Hana Štěpánková, spokeswoman for the national privacy protection watchdog.
For example, every camera system operator recording and archiving video data is required to register at the ÚOOÚ as a personal data administrator and observe certain rules, Štěpánková said.    
Last year, the office made several checks focused on camera surveillance, revealing a number of cases in which personal privacy law was broken. A supermarket, for example, was fined for monitoring places far outside its actual premises and for archiving video data too long, according to Štěpánková.
Hill said GuardSec Services informs its clients of legal pitfalls in the use of camera surveillance systems. Technology development appears to be moving faster than legal norms, however, he said.
“It is their responsibility to ensure their surveillance system is operated in accordance with the law,” Hill said.
Prague City Hall has about 450 surveillance sites around the city, as do several private companies.

Victor Velek can be reached at vvelek@praguepost.com


Other articles in Business (5/12/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.