Where does Alabama stand on video surveillance in public and private places?
This is a general article to raise awareness and is not intended to provide any legal advice.
Whether or not you have privacy rights to protect you from the prying eyes of video surveillance comes down to this simple question:
Is there a reasonable expectation of privacy?
A simple question, but one that often requires a complex legal and factual analysis to answer correctly.
If you’re in a public place on public property you probably do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. But even that statement can be clarified slightly, based on the context: Public restrooms on public property would still reasonable expectation of privacy.
If you’re on private property that is open to the public and you entered the private property legally, you probably don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy while there, although the context again might make a difference.
In general, if you’re on private property that is closed to the public, yet is readily visible from a public right-of-way there’s a different expectation of privacy than if you’re behind a gated privacy fence in your backyard.
You may have no personal privacy rights in your private office of a private employer, even though you might personally expect to have some privacy there. That’s because private employers do have the right to monitor their workspaces, at least to some extent. Every state has a different laws that address workplace privacy for private employer/employee relationships.
You should still have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the restroom of your workplace or a place where you’re changing clothes, at least in Alabama right now. Some states have laws that allow surveillance in dressing rooms, if proper notice is given.
This 2014 article on Al.com provides a good overview:
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2014/02/dnp_whos_watching_you_alabama.html
