Overview
- The Federal Court of Justice held a hearing Thursday in Karlsruhe on whether a family’s hidden camera in a private kitchen broke privacy and data rules.
- Judges questioned if the GDPR’s household exemption, which covers purely personal or family activities, applies to filming a kitchen used by a visiting relative.
- The case stems from a daughter forwarding kitchen footage of her mother to police during a complaint over suspected coin theft from a cupboard.
- Lower courts, including the Higher Regional Court of Celle in April 2025, rejected the mother’s claims by treating the filming as confined to a private sphere under the household exemption.
- The BGH gave no ruling and said it may ask the European Court of Justice to interpret the exemption, a move that could delay a decision for months and influence how homeowners must notify or get consent before recording in shared rooms.