Cámaras de Videovigilancia in Spain: Communities, Homes and the RGPD (2026)
Installing a camera, whether it covers a community's entrance or a family's own front door, is a data-protection question with its own dedicated rule. Article 22 of the LOPDGDD sets the framework for every videovigilancia system in Spain, and the AEPD has issued specific guidance for cameras in a comunidad de propietarios.
Information last verified on 23 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.
What article 22 actually allows
LOPDGDD art. 22.1 lets any person or organisation, public or private, process images captured through camera systems for the purpose of preserving the safety of people, property and their own installations. That purpose is the anchor for everything else in the article: it is what a camera is allowed to be for.
Art. 22.2 then limits what a camera can capture of the vía pública, the public street or space outside the property. Public-space footage is only allowed to the extent it is genuinely essential for that safety purpose, with a narrow exception for strategic installations or transport infrastructure that may need a wider public-space view. Even then, the rule is absolute in one respect: no camera covered by this article may capture the interior of a private home.
The one-month deletion rule
Art. 22.3 sets a retention limit rather than a general one: recordings must be deleted within a maximum of «un mes» from when they were captured. That is a calendar month, not a fixed day-count. The exception is footage needed to prove an act against the integrity of people, property or installations, which must instead be handed over to the competent authority within 72 hours of the recording's existence becoming known. Videovigilancia processing is exempt from the separate art. 32 blocking duty altogether: footage deleted at the one-month mark is simply deleted, with no obligation to keep a blocked copy.
Signage and the doméstica exception
The information duty in art. 22.4 is satisfied by placing a sufficiently visible sign identifying, at minimum, that videovigilancia is taking place, who is responsible for it, and that data-subject rights can be exercised, with fuller information kept available on request.
Art. 22.5 carves out a genuine exemption: a natural person processing images that only capture the interior of their own home is excluded from the RGPD's scope entirely. That exclusion is narrow. It does not cover a private security company contracted to watch a home if that company has access to the images, and it stops applying once a camera captures anything beyond the inside of that home.
Cameras run by law-enforcement bodies follow a separate legal track (art. 22.6), and none of this displaces Spain's private-security law, Ley 5/2014 (art. 22.7). Employer-installed cameras used to monitor staff sit under a related but distinct rule, art. 89, which is its own subject rather than a community or household question.
Cameras in a comunidad de propietarios
The AEPD's practical guidance for camera systems in a comunidad de propietarios sets out requirements that sit on top of art. 22. Installing cameras in common areas needs the agreement of the Junta de Propietarios, recorded in the minutes, and the same applies to cameras covering a communal pool. The AEPD recommends the agreement itself record details like the number of cameras and the area each one covers.
Once installed, cameras may only capture the community's own common areas. They cannot capture the vía pública except for a minimal strip at the building's access points where that is unavoidable, and they cannot capture neighbouring land, neighbouring homes or any other space outside the community. If a camera is orientable or has zoom, the AEPD requires privacy masks to keep it from drifting into public or neighbouring space. Hiring an outside company to run the system, or having a third party install the cameras, does not excuse the community itself from complying with data-protection rules.
The recording equipment must sit somewhere restricted or supervised, accessible only to authorised personnel, and footage follows the same one-month deletion window as any other videovigilancia system, with images used to report an offence attached to the relevant complaint and used for nothing else. Footage may never be made available to residents through a community television channel or similar general broadcast.
What vote does installing cameras need
The LPH sets a ladder of majorities for community decisions, and the closest fit for camera installation is art. 17.3, which requires a three-fifths vote for establishing services like portería, conserjería and «vigilancia», or other general-interest common services. In practice, installing a videovigilancia system is commonly treated by practitioners as falling under that category by analogy.
It is worth being precise here rather than overstating it: the LPH's own text never uses the word «videovigilancia», so the three-fifths route rests on treating a camera system as a form of «vigilancia» in the sense art. 17.3 already covers, not on a camera-specific provision that does not exist in the statute. A more cautious reading could instead fall back on art. 17.7, the residual rule for agreements not otherwise categorised, which needs only a majority of those attending a validly called meeting. For the full majority ladder and how a junta actually runs, see the homeowners-association page.
Cameras at home: the doméstica exception and where it ends
A homeowner filming only the inside of their own flat has no data-protection paperwork to worry about, thanks to art. 22.5's doméstica exception. That exception ends the moment the same camera also picks up a shared landing, a neighbour's window, or the street outside, at which point the full art. 22 framework applies, including the deletion window and the information duty covered above. The separate question of recording a conversation or an interaction with another person, as opposed to running a fixed camera, is covered on the recording laws page, and how a comunidad handles disputes over shared spaces more generally is covered in the community-law section.
This page is general legal information about Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case. The controlling texts are the current versions in the BOE.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long can a security camera keep my footage in Spain?
A maximum of one calendar month from when it was recorded, under LOPDGDD art. 22.3. The only exception is footage needed to prove an offence against people, property or installations, which must be handed to the competent authority within 72 hours instead of being deleted.
Does my community need to vote before installing cameras?
Yes. The AEPD requires the Junta de Propietarios to agree before cameras go up in common areas or the pool. The LPH itself does not name camera systems specifically, but installing them is commonly treated as a «vigilancia» service under art. 17.3, which needs a three-fifths vote.
Can a community camera point at the street or a neighbouring building?
Only to a very limited degree. Community cameras may capture the vía pública solely to the minimal extent unavoidable at access points, and they cannot capture neighbouring land, homes or any space outside the community. Orientable or zoom cameras need privacy masks to prevent this.
Do I need a sign if I install security cameras in Spain?
Yes. LOPDGDD art. 22.4 requires a sufficiently visible sign identifying that videovigilancia is taking place, who is responsible for it, and how to exercise data-protection rights, with fuller information available to anyone who asks.
Are home security cameras exempt from Spain's data-protection rules?
Only if the camera captures solely the interior of your own home (art. 22.5 LOPDGDD). The exemption does not apply if a contracted security company has access to the images, and it stops applying the moment the camera also captures a shared area, a neighbour's property or the street.