Privacy settings for neighbor's home

[gagandeep]

Hi. In my state (California), it is illegal to capture private areas like backyard, inside of neighbor's bedroom window. If I plan to use Arlo Pro system, can I censor or put a black box in camera image such that neighbor's private areas are not captured or recorded? Is such feature supported? Also, it is illegal to capture conversations without consent during continuous recording or motion alert clips. Are there any suggestions to avoid audio capture (simple reassurance may not work as neighbor can always approach a lawyer). Can you please answer all of the questions asked? Thank you for reading!

[jguerdat · Accepted solution]

You can use camera positioning as well as pan and zoom to eliminate such areas.  It may take some creative experimentation to get a satisfactory result.  Also, there may well be a fine line between needing to mask ALL such areas vs. just getting some areas due to the inability of being able to monitor your property without being able to eliminate the neighbor's.

I have a similar situation.  The (crazy) neighbor called the cops to complain about my cameras.  I showed the officer the display of what was captured and he had no problem with all but one which he suggested just rotating down some.  Obviously, that's not a legal opinion but seems to be a reasonable starting point.

[gagandeep]

Hi - thank you for your reply. I also wanted to ask how to show cops you were not recording audio (and will not do so in future) such that it is acceptable. Also, in some camera brands like Lorex, within its software, you can place black colored boxes in image settings, such that we cannot record that area ever (is censored) - are such settings available in arlo pro?

[TomMac]

As you know , anyone can almost sue for anything... but it would require a form of court order to force you to supply videos you recorded...

The Arlo series do not support black box areas... the best you can do is placement and pan/zoom to crop out areas you don't want. Same goes to audio... you either get Arlo cameras  whch simply do not have audio Or Arlo Pros which do and turn off the mic.  ( proof is in the video file anyway to show or not show to whoever requests same ).

The other option is to use a Q camera inside your home if window covers area needed

Every state has it's own laws as to what is permissible re video / audio so be guided by your state.

[jguerdat]

You can prove the audio issue by playing the recording. It's embedded in that.