Austria is supposedly completely illegal, but unless the police there will stop you for having one, I'd probably risk it. Perhaps courts wouldn't admit it as evidence, but insurance arbitration might, or it might at lease avoid an insurance fight altogether.
No, dashcams that constantly take video while driving are illegal in Germany. Just recording, even if you don't publish it. Courts are still allowed to consider such illegally taken footage when considering a case. That's what the article you link to says.
You can post it on YouTube but you need to anonymize the footage. No plates and any identifying information which can be quite tricky. For example if you post a video of a rare car of which maybe 1 person owns one would count as identifiable.
I believe in certain extreme cases some courts in Switzerland did permit such footage in court.
> Any form of systematic surveillance is prohibited. So recording anything that happens in front of the lens - without any other primary purpose - is classified as surveillance activity. This activity is reserved for the state.
Wow, not dystopian at all. I figured it was some way to try to prevent some kind of
stasi like surveillance at all, but it just makes it more official. :s
Imagine this: suppose there is a big company called Nile that sells a door security camera called Ding. This security camera happens to upload everything to the company servers. Since it is very popular, it has a huge coverage. If there are no restrictions on surveiling public ground, Nile could engage in all sorts of things, like tracking cars with license plates, etc. That's why Europe places restrictions on this sort of stuff.
You can still use a Ding, but it can only point at your private property and you have to inform people who may enter your property that it's being recorded.
I guess that depends on climate, anecdotally in the UK both I and many people I know mount our phones on the windshield or dashboard without worrying about it being hit by sunlight and without overheating problems, even while it's charging and screen on for satnav.
Yeah, I had a variation on that not long ago. I was outside, it was warm and I was facing the sun. Just before I needed it my phone suddenly piped up that it was overheating and it force-closed all apps and wouldn't run anything until it cooled down a bit.
Looks like the person that posted this decided to editorialize a little too much because there's nothing written about being a dashcam in the GitHub repo.
I've looked for something like that and the options seem pretty slim. I'd like a simple device you can drop in a pocket that records audio on a fairly long loop. Obviously it's going to get some clothing noise but I think it would be useful anyway.
Obviously it's only legal in one-party states but that covers most of the US.
What are you talking about? You plug it into your car and mount it then never think about it again. And it’s cheaper than the crappiest Android phones. An old phone is going to overheat and require manual intervention regularly, if you are using your daily driver you are adding a lot of wear and tear and you have to power it or you’ll burn your battery, oh and it will overheat as well.
30 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 97.8 ms ] threadSwitzerland has it in a grey area. You certainly can't publish the videos on YouTube, but it could be examined by the police.
It's certainly a net positive on society to allow dashcams, since it resolves ambiguity around liability.
Apropos, not related, but after the war victims of holocaust often recognized their tormentors from TV or from newspapers.
https://www.dw.com/en/dashcams-in-germany-permissible-in-cou...
Austria is supposedly completely illegal, but unless the police there will stop you for having one, I'd probably risk it. Perhaps courts wouldn't admit it as evidence, but insurance arbitration might, or it might at lease avoid an insurance fight altogether.
Showing your footage to an insurance company would make them obligated to report you to the police.
I believe in certain extreme cases some courts in Switzerland did permit such footage in court.
https://www.oeamtc.at/thema/vorschriften-strafen/zulaessigke...
> Any form of systematic surveillance is prohibited. So recording anything that happens in front of the lens - without any other primary purpose - is classified as surveillance activity. This activity is reserved for the state.
You can still use a Ding, but it can only point at your private property and you have to inform people who may enter your property that it's being recorded.
https://9to5google.com/2023/05/16/pixel-dashcam-personal-saf...
Or that insurance companies don’t offer a free dash cam.
Obviously it's only legal in one-party states but that covers most of the US.