In short
- In Spain, Art. 22 LOPDGDD (AEPD) applies, not German data protection law: your own land yes, the public street and neighbouring property generally no, a warning sign is mandatory, deletion after one month.
- Recognisability is pixel density at the subject (px/m), not megapixels. A single wide-angle "covers everything" camera identifies no one at the property edge.
- Night, backlight and 40 degrees are three separate problems – we rely on UniFi Protect: local recorder, AI analysis without a subscription, no manufacturer access to your footage.
The law first, the image second
Many German-speaking owners plan their system by feel and by what they know from home. On Mallorca, though, Spanish law applies: Art. 22 LOPDGDD together with the GDPR, enforced by the AEPD. The German BDSG plays no part here. Whoever mounts cameras by German assumptions often mounts them wrongly.
The principle is clear. On your own land you may record to protect people and property. The public street you may capture only as far as it is indispensable – in AEPD practice only the "franja mínima", the narrow access strip to the property. The neighbour's house, the adjoining terrace, the path behind it: off limits. A camera pointed at the neighbours' terrace is a common, easily avoidable mistake.
Three duties are readily overlooked. At every access point a sign must state the processing and the controller; further detail may follow by QR code or URL (Art. 22.4). Recordings must be deleted after one month at the latest; if they document a crime, they go to the authorities within 72 hours (Art. 22.3). And the AEPD acts: a camera aimed at public space has already drawn a 1,500-euro fine (Res. PS/00108/2020). The missing or incomplete sign is in fact the most frequently sanctioned breach.
One special case concerns the monitoring station. As soon as a system is connected to an alarm receiving centre (CRA), Ley 5/2014 on private security applies. Connection and maintenance of such systems are reserved for security firms licensed in Spain and registered with the Policía. A German installer without that licence may not do it. Plain video recording without a monitoring station falls outside this – the line runs exactly at the connection. Please have all legal points here checked case by case.
Why more megapixels do not mean more recognition
"4K is surely enough" is the most common technical error. Whether you can identify someone depends not on the camera's megapixels but on pixel density at the subject – how many pixels per metre arrive at the target point. The standard IEC/EN 62676-4 (DORI) sets the thresholds:
| Level | Pixel density | What it allows |
|---|---|---|
| Detection | 25 px/m | someone is there |
| Observation | 63 px/m | behaviour roughly visible |
| Recognition | 125 px/m | known person recognisable |
| Identification | 250 px/m | stranger identifiable |
As a rule of thumb, identification needs at least 40 pixels across the face width. The key point: the same camera manages this only at short range. A 1080p camera with a 1/2.8" sensor and a 4 mm lens identifies a person up to about 5.7 metres – beyond that it is only enough for detection. You control range through focal length and angle of view, not through resolution.
From this follows the second common mistake: the one wide-angle camera "for everything". It covers area but identifies no one at the edge. Driveway, front door and perimeter are three zones at three distances and each needs its own focal length. And do not mount too high: from above you see the crown of a head and a hat, not a face. How an estate is sensibly split into zones belongs in the planning of a security system, not in a hardware-store purchase.
Night, backlight and 40 degrees are three problems
Backlight. A bright gate opening or the sky behind the subject turns a person into a silhouette. The remedy is WDR (Wide Dynamic Range). Without WDR the best resolution is useless if backlight leaves only a black outline.
Night. Here you must choose. Infrared is invisible but delivers only black and white – clothing and car colour are lost. White light ("full-colour night") delivers colour but is visible and disturbs neighbours and animals. Both have their place, just not at the same spot. Plain PIR motion sensing is also vulnerable: headlights or a torch can be misread as heat and trigger a false alarm.
Heat. The outdoor standard is IP66; IP67 additionally withstands 30 minutes submerged at one metre. For operating temperature, datasheets state up to +60 °C depending on the model. The catch: this limit applies to the ambient air, not to a housing in full southern sun. At 40 degrees air temperature the internal temperature on a south wall may sit above it. There are no solid measurements for this, so we treat south mounting as a risk on principle and plan shading or a different orientation.
Olive trees set off no alarm – if the camera thinks
Palms, pines and olive trees in the wind are the classic false-alarm source on Mallorca. Simple motion detection reacts to any moving vegetation. Everyone knows the outcome: the user eventually switches the alarms off in frustration – and then the system no longer reports the real incident either.
The remedy is AI object detection that distinguishes person, vehicle and animal instead of reporting every pixel movement. Combined with sensor fusion – PIR and in-image person detection together – false detections fall by up to about 50 percent according to a study. That is the difference between a system you take seriously and one you switch off.
Why recording belongs locally on the island
Three island reasons argue against the cloud. Internet at the finca is often weak or runs over radio; a cloud camera then fails to upload its recordings cleanly. Endesa officially acknowledged power cuts on Mallorca in 2026 from "estrés térmico" after heatwaves – so a system must keep running during an outage, which calls for a UPS on the recorder. And at empty second and holiday homes, where the documented okupas context applies, recording must be self-sufficient, precisely when the network or power is down.
Local means UniFi Protect: PoE cameras on your own recorder, no subscription, 24/7 recording, AI analysis for person, vehicle, parcel, face and licence plate directly on the device – the manufacturer has no access to your streams. Cloud subscription services, by contrast, record only against ongoing payment; without an active subscription you keep live view and motion alerts but no recording. Over the years the subscription often adds up beyond the one-off cost of the local solution.
The building style fits this anyway. Natural stone, marès and thick walls across large grounds are poor for radio cameras; wired PoE infrastructure with conduits from the shell stage on is, in our experience, effectively the only option on an estate. What this looks like across several buildings is shown in our references.
What it costs – honestly
Portals quote around 1,400 euros on average for a CCTV installation, 100 to 600 euros per camera. Those figures describe a two-room flat or a small shop. An estate with a guest house, pool area, several buildings, conduits, PoE infrastructure and ongoing maintenance is in another order of magnitude. A serious total for that can only be named after a site visit, not from a table. Anyone who wants a solid calculation for their property gets it via contact – after the look on site, not before.
Before the first camera goes up
- Check the law as Spanish (AEPD/LOPDGDD), do not plan by the German pattern.
- No image of the public street or neighbouring land beyond the "franja mínima".
- A sign at every access point, deletion after one month observed.
- Define zones (driveway, door, perimeter) and calculate focal length per zone via px/m, not megapixels.
- Serve backlit spots with WDR; choose consciously between IR (B/W) and white light (colour) at night.
- Avoid or shade south mounting; check IP66/67 and operating temperature.
- AI object filter instead of plain motion detection against vegetation false alarms.
- Local recording with UniFi Protect and a UPS; monitoring-station connection only via a licensed Spanish firm (Ley 5/2014).
Related reading
German-speaking IT service for fincas, villas and businesses on Mallorca. Networks, Wi-Fi, security technology and smart home — planned, installed and maintained.