Can our apartment building put cameras in the hallway?

Hallways, garages and entrances are shared space — no single resident’s household exemption covers them. What lawful building CCTV looks like: a documented decision by the owners’ association or landlord (check your national co-ownership rules for the required majority), a defined purpose (burglary, vandalism — with incidents to point to), signage before entering the covered zone, short retention (days), access restricted to a named few, and a contact for access requests — yes, residents can request footage of themselves. What kills proportionality: cameras catching individual apartment doors (a log of your visitors, doctors, dates — DPAs treat this as deep intrusion), mailboxes, or audio. Aim at the asset, not the neighbours’ lives. The rogue-camera case — one resident unilaterally filming the corridor: unlawful essentially everywhere; route it via the association first, then the DPA or courts, same as a garden-facing neighbour camera. Video doorbells in flats are the hybrid: a lens on your own door that inevitably sees the shared corridor — several DPAs accept narrow, motion-triggered fields with masking; wide-angle permanent recording of the hallway they do not. Renters: the landlord installing surveillance “for security” needs the same lawful setup, and monitoring who enters your home crosses into tenancy-law harassment.