Standards, technology and market coverage of physical security for installers, integrators, alarm receiving centres and guarding companies.
The EU AI Act reaches UK CCTV work only where the installer is established in the EU or the system’s output is used there. At home, UK GDPR, the ICO and the Surveillance Camera Code apply. The EU delay is law: Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 has been in force since 27 July 2026 and moves high-risk biometric obligations to 2 December 2027, while the bans apply already.
Does the EU AI Act apply to UK CCTV? What UK GDPR and the ICO require for facial recognition, plus the EU dates after the digital omnibus for Spain and Italy.
Neighbour’s CCTV or doorbell camera pointing at your house or garden: when UK law applies, and the route that works, from a polite letter to an ICO complaint.
Subject access requests, police, solicitors and insurers: who gets CCTV footage, the deadline after the 2025 Act, and what to do about third parties.
DVR, NVR, cloud and hybrid CCTV recording compared: storage and bandwidth worked out with real numbers, retention, UK GDPR processors, security and line failure.
PSTN switch-off by 31 January 2027 and 2G closure from 2029: official dates for the UK, Italy and Spain, what stops working and how to upgrade alarm signalling.
How false alarms cost a URN its police response under the NPCC requirements, and how Spain and Italy handle alarm verification before the police are called.
SIA licence counts, companies, staff and turnover for private security in the UK, Spain and Italy, each with its year and source, and what cannot be compared.
Every figure comes from the manufacturer’s datasheet, with a link to check it.
Home burglaries per 100,000 people, from official statistics. The Data section adds robbery, firms, licences and pay for other countries.
Eight questions, three minutes. At the end you see what is still open on your system and what to do about each point under your country’s rules.
How many terabytes you need to record your cameras: enter the number of cameras, bitrate, hours and retention days. Free, no sign-up.
Create a CCTV sign for the UK, Italy or Spain with the controller details and the information regulators ask for, then print it or save it as a PDF. Free.
Trade terms, explained in two lines.
Sentinary is written for people who install, design and run security systems. We read the sources for you and say what they change on the job.
Every article starts from laws, standards and official figures, and links to them.
Every piece opens with a summary: what changes, for whom, from when.
No advertising dressed up as articles. Sponsorship, if any, is labelled.
The laws, standards and regulators we write from, with links to the official document.
We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which articles are most useful. It only switches on if you accept, and you can change your mind at any time. Cookie notice
