Counting visitors in the Library

September 19, 2022

TU/e counts the number of visitors in the library of the MetaForum building in order to obtain visitor numbers, statistics and percentage of occupancy of the reading room. To be able to count visitors as accurately as possible TU/e uses a counting device. The recording, processing and erasing of the footage happens real-time by automated means. Consequently, the footage is not kept for longer than fractions of a second.

Privacy and security

TU/e bears the responsibility for a careful and adequate processing of the footage and is therefore ‘Controller’ in the sense of the GDPR. The legal base for TU/e to process the footage is its legitimate interest to accurately count the number of visitors in the library, article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

The footage is recorded by one counting device, which is to be considered a fixed camera with two lenses, positioned on the ceiling of MetaForum above the glass entry gates. The lenses point immediately downwards, capturing visitors top down. The camera records continuously, resulting in a livestream that is immediately analyzed and erased. The output of the analyses is +1 or -1 and a timestamp.

An overlay filter is applied to the footage at all times to safeguard the privacy of visitors. The filter assures that visitors are never identifiable in the footage. The following image provides insight as to what the footage looks like when a person is recorded by the counting device.

Due to the fact that the footage is processed real-time only and because the footage depicts visitors in an unrecognizable manner, the privacy risks for visitors are considered very low.

The supplier of the counting device, EKZ, has access to the blurred footage. TU/e has made appropriate agreements with EKZ to make sure the data is safe. The footage can for example be viewed by people who, based on their position, are authorized to do so in specific situations only. For example, when the device malfunctions. TU/e has further ensured the security of the footage with appropriate technical and organizational measures. This prevents the unlawful processing of the footage.

Questions

In case you have any questions relating to the counting device in the library of MetaForum, please do not hesitate to refer these questions to library.helpdesk@tue.nl.   

Privacy rights

Data subjects have certain privacy rights within TU/e. For example the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection or data portability. For a more extensive overview of all privacy rights and how to invoke these rights, please have a look at TU/e's general privacy statement

Since the livestream footage is immediately erased and visitors cannot be identified in the livestream footage, not all the privacy rights as mentioned in TU/e’s privacy statement, can be successfully executed for this particular processing activity. If you have any questions about how to execute your privacy rights with regards to the counting device, please contact privacy@tue.nl.

In case of complaints

In case you have a complaint about the counting device you can submit the complaint to the Data Protection Officer (FG) at dataprotectionofficer@tue.nl. If you do not agree with the complaint handling by the Data Protection Officer, you can file a complaint directly with the Dutch Data Protection Authority.