Singapore Expats

Is it legal in Singapore to have a cctv installed in your own private house to monitor or record for example part time cleaner or a baby sitter. All of course in the areas like the kid room or LR?

Yes. As long as it's not in a bedroom or bathroom.

What on earth is the point of having a camera to record someone YOU ARE HAPPY TO LET MIND YOUR KIDS or come into your house? If you aren't 100% happy, or not a trusting person, why would you take the risk in the first place with one of the most important things in your life?

@BillyB, in the ideal world you don't, but unfortunately the world is not ideal and you have to make some compromises. Every cleaner or a babysitter is a stranger in one point so this serves actually to gain the trust. Once it is there no need for monitoring. but this is a bit aside.
The actual story is more funny because I got pissed at one part time cleaner agency that kept sending me maids of substandard quality (or to say it using a PC language: not meeting my expectations). After another maid did not show up for work I informed them I was going to cctv record the cleaning performance and efficiency of all the subsequent maids, claim back their fees in SCT and later publish all this on the web. They responded they felt seriously threatened, it was or would be a violation of their maids privacy and they refused to provide any further maids for replacements sending my e-mail to their lawyer They also refused to provide the agency fee refund. They said they were going to wait till I sue them to SCT. Their motives and play are pretty clear but it is very likely I will really sue them just for the sake of principles and especially that now the whole point is the denial of the contracted services not the quality of the maids. So this is more less the whole picture.

BillyB wrote:What on earth is the point of having a camera to record someone YOU ARE HAPPY TO LET MIND YOUR KIDS or come into your house? If you aren't 100% happy, or not a trusting person, why would you take the risk in the first place with one of the most important things in your life?

Trust no one until you know them, then you will see that everyone has their own level of honesty, even within the family It maybe trivial, but if it's your last favourite sweet and you haven't had any, your going to be disappointed I vote for cameras every time! They help to keep the temptation in check! But warn them that CCTV is for security and safety for all concerned, there is no law against having a camera in your own bedroom and the kids bedroom, though a 3rd party is entitled to their own space free of camera's. toilets are out of bounds for CCTV.

I must admit that even my own family can be very annoying when it comes to moving my personal items, not stealing but they do deny not touching things. So my answer is no you cannot trust anyone not to touch anything that doesn't belong to them! People take things for granted, when they should ask!

I personally do not touch or take anything that doesn't belong to me, without asking and i expect the same respect of my property in my own home. Why because i treat my belongings with respect, and take great care not to damage, where others do not care at all!

I still have LP vinyl records which i would not trust in the hands of family and my work tools which are very expensive have been taken without asking, which i feel very annoyed about! So my opinion is you cannot trust anyone not to touch!
Most maids are also not trained in child care and do need monitoring, after the many incidents in Singapore of children abusing the maids position in the home and maids abusing children only time and experience with anyone will give you peace of mind.

Though many babies cannot speak and test even the best of mothers too, never mind strangers.

This was the exact reason why I only posted a single line. I knew all this sh*t would come up just like it did the last time the topic was broached.

I reckon he doesn't need a sermon. Frankly I'd like to have CCTV's in my house as well. But I don't have a maid. I have an aging crone of a MiL who can hardly get around and if she wer to slip and fall, there might not be anyone home to get to her. I'll leave the moralizing to others.

ksl, wait until you daughter hits puberty and tell her you are going to put a cctv in her room........

Boy will you have a rebellion on your hands!

this reminds me of an episode of "CONFESSIONS OF A..." on itv i watched a few nights ago... they featured baby sitters/au pairs.

Thanks for the info and your comments. Personally I think it should be legal even in the bedroom as a cleaner is in the private house as a defacto employee so he/she should expect certain level of supervision at any time in the areas normally not sensitive to anybody's privacy. Contrarily, If this was not a cleaner but my guest I would expect such recording or monitoring illegal in any place (if not made know to her/him).

amarok wrote:Thanks for the info and your comments. Personally I think it should be legal even in the bedroom as a cleaner is in the private house as a defacto employee so he/she should expect certain level of supervision at any time in the areas normally not sensitive to anybody's privacy. Contrarily, If this was not a cleaner but my guest I would expect such recording or monitoring illegal in any place (if not made know to her/him).

Just a question:

You are threatening to sue and expected them not to pull the plug ??

If I was smart, I would have collected all the evidence before doing a show of force ...

Well, you can go ahead and record, as long as you haven't plugged any camera in the toilet, as the cleaner's privacy is NOT VIOLATED, unless she was talking a nap and you spied on her .. in which case, still you have a case as you pay them to clean your house, not to take a nap, I guess ..

As for

Personally I think it should be legal even in the bedroom as a cleaner is in the private house as a defacto employee so he/she should expect certain level of supervision at any time in the areas normally not sensitive to anybody's privacy.

well, NO CAN Do.

If you think you need to supervise your maid in her bedroom, you shouldn't be having a maid, says me with a lot of humbleness ...

ecureilx wrote:If you think you need to supervise your maid in her bedroom, you shouldn't be having a maid, says me with a lot of humbleness ...

I knew already before you were a treasure employer but typically part time maids / cleaners do not have their own bedrooms in somebody's house They are there to work only, not live, sleep and do other extra private activities.

I was responding to this, in that he was referring to a full time maid ..

"Personally I think it should be legal even in the bedroom as a cleaner is in the private house as a defacto employee so he/she should expect certain level of supervision at any time in the areas normally not sensitive to anybody's privacy. "

I took it as the OP was wondering if the maid was full time, he still has the right to invade her privacy .. Or I could be wrong there ..

ecureilx wrote: Just a question:

You are threatening to sue and expected them not to pull the plug ??

I think it is a risky move. I don't want to get into more details as this is not unlikely they may read this board from time to time, but they simply violated the contract so they have to have a good reason for this. At the same time they refused to pay back the money giving me by this the only opportunity to cheaply sue them in SCT. Also this alleged threat is not really a threat if you think about it from the consumer relation perspective and what the company promises to their customers. If this developed to the SCT stage it may harm their reputation in the longer term so yes, I am kind of surprised but taking into account the greed factor maybe not.

amarok wrote:If this developed to the SCT stage it may harm their reputation in the longer term so yes, I am kind of surprised but taking into account the greed factor maybe not.

I am not that old as the ancient guys on this board, but, let me tell you a secret: Such threats of the reputation being harmed 'generally' dosen't fly in Singapore .. (especially with SMEs)

Seen many a company who had no qualms in heading to SCT once in a while, and it is like perfectly normal, and oh, while I was employed elsewhere, when we had such skirmishes, more than one buyer / customer have reminded me after the SCT hearing that my then employer must be paid , they defendent went like "oh, let's move on .. and business is business, we hope you will still honour our future orders, when we need to buy from you .. " all the while even when they had pending payments, they still RFQ .. (it's a different matter that we didn't bother to even quote .. )