legal validty of owners association to conduct surveillance on residents
Hi all,
I Need help with a peculiar case.
I live in a large apt. complex in Hyd. I have been living here for 4 yrs as a tenant. This is a reasonably expensive area.
Recently the owners’ association passed a rule to tag families with RFID tags (Radio frequency Identification tags). Now RFIDs have unique ids and are usually used to track goods in warehouses and shops.
They can be read from a distance of about a few feet. (i.e. If I have a tag in my purse, anybody can read it without me knowing about it.)
(Forced RFID tagging of humans is already banned in USA. Only prisoners are tagged with RFID in some prisons and in some states in the US, convicted child molestors are tagged with RFID.)
The association is making it mandatory for all residents to carry it for entry and exit to the complex. They are recording this information in a Database and say that they will use this data whenever they ‘suspect’ something.
Also, they are asking for a list of all residents, age and relationships.
My questions:
1. Can they force me and my family members to carry this tag? Can they deny me entry into my residential apartment?
2. The tags can be read at a distance i.e Someone with a tag reader can read the tags from outside my house i.e. they can find out if my house is vacant or who is in the house.
3. If they are tracking my movements - I think this is surveillance by a non Govt. body. Is it legal for someone to conduct surveillance like this?
4. I do not wish to divulge my family relationships, age etc. as I don’t know where they are storing this information and anyone can be easily bribed and old people/ladies/children at home can be in danger when I am in office.
Lot of people protested and they have clarified that the RFIDs will not be issued to individuals but to a family i.e. 4 cards per family. But even here, they can track the movement of all my family members.
The implications of this are of course huge. If this is legal, it means that any scoiety/owners’ association can conduct surveillance on the residents. This means *all* residents of apartments and all gated community residents in India can be put under surveillance without any legal process.
Can any legal expert give his opinion on this?
1 Reply
I guess u need to have the tags only wen u r makin an exit or entry into the building. I don’t think they will be able to track your movements once u r out of ur society. As you are a tenant, I dnt think U have much say before the Society’s committee. As long as owners of the flats in the society do not have issues and are in majority, the society will go ahead with the resolution. So the owners in the society would have to take this issue in the general meeting.