SquintPRO · Regulation and operations
Saudi security surveillance cameras law: what a facility should check, and what to do with the footage
The Saudi security surveillance cameras law sets which facilities must install security cameras, where, to what specification, how long recordings are kept and who may see them. Your legal team reads the official text and decides what applies. Then a problem every site manager knows remains: thousands of hours of footage nobody watches until something goes wrong. This guide covers what to check in the text, and where SquintPRO helps on the same cameras, and where it does not.
Published 10 min read
Orientation
At a glance
The whole page in one table, before the detail.
- The law
- The Law on the Use of Security Surveillance Cameras and its implementing regulation, published on the Bureau of Experts site
- Authority
- The Ministry of Interior and the competent security authorities, as the text sets out
- What a facility checks
- Whether it is covered, where cameras go, specifications, how long recordings are kept, who may see them
- The operational problem
- Large volumes of footage recorded and never watched, and slow manual search
- Where SquintPRO helps
- Alerts on existing cameras, and footage search by description or photo
- Where it does not
- It does not decide the legal obligation, replace compliant installation, or use face recognition
The problem in short
- The law: a Saudi law on security surveillance cameras, with an implementing regulation. The official text is the reference, not summaries.
- What falls to a facility: knowing whether it is covered, installing cameras where and as the text requires, keeping recordings for the required period, and releasing them only as the text allows.
- The problem that remains: cameras that record around the clock, footage nobody watches, and hours of manual search when a clip is requested.
- Where SquintPRO comes in: on the same cameras, it alerts when something you define happens and makes footage searchable by description. It does not decide the legal obligation or replace correct installation.
What the Saudi security surveillance cameras law is, and where to find its text
The Law on the Use of Security Surveillance Cameras is a Saudi law governing how facilities install and use security cameras and keep their recordings. An implementing regulation sets out its detail, and it is applied with the Ministry of Interior and the competent security authorities. The official text of the law and its regulation is published on the Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers site, and that text is the only one to rely on.
Read more
This guide does not repeat article numbers, retention periods or fines: online summaries disagree, the texts are amended, and copying a summary spreads wrong requirements. It sets out the topics the text covers as questions, to answer from the current text with your legal team, then turns to running cameras and footage day to day.
Why the law matters to facilities in Saudi Arabia
Many sites in the Kingdom run hundreds of cameras: warehouses and factories, malls and hotels, hospitals and universities, construction sites and government facilities. Security, facilities, HSE, IT and the installer all touch the cameras. If nobody owns compliance with the camera law, gaps fall between them: a camera moved, a full recorder overwriting footage early, a clip shared in a chat group without permission. Name one owner, who keeps the written decision, camera plan and hand-over log, and reviews them yearly.
Read more
The law has a second, data side. Footage in which people can be identified can be personal data under the Personal Data Protection Law, overseen by the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA). The team deciding who sees footage and when it is deleted needs to read the two laws together, as the guide to PDPL compliance explains.
Saudi CCTV law requirements: six questions to answer from the official text
These are the topics on which a facility should come away from reading the law and its regulation with a written answer. The answer comes from the current text, not from this guide:
- Is our facility one of those required to install cameras? The text and its regulation set the categories of facility that must install them. Establish whether yours falls in one, and whether the answer differs between branches and sites.
- Where must cameras go, and where must they not? Entrances and exits, car parks and corridors, and the places where filming is not allowed for privacy. Mark it on the site plan.
- Which technical specifications apply? The regulation and its documents set requirements for cameras and recorders. Compare what is installed today with them, camera by camera.
- How long must recordings be kept? The text sets the retention period. Size storage for it from the number of cameras and the recording resolution, not from what the recorder holds today.
- Who may view recordings, and who may receive a copy? The text sets which authorities may view footage and when it may be transferred or published. Decide who inside the facility can reach it, and how each hand-over is recorded.
- What is needed beyond the camera itself? Such as signs showing that filming takes place, registration with the competent authority where required, maintenance, and the consequences of a breach. Read which of these applies to you.
Security surveillance cameras regulation: a review table for your facility
The first column names each topic in plain words, not an article title; your legal team maps each row to the text before relying on it. The last column says what the software contributes, and when it contributes nothing.
| Topic | Settled from the official text | Evidence the facility keeps | Role of SquintPRO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Whether the facility is covered, and which of its sites | A written decision per site, with its reference in the text | None |
| Camera placement | Where filming is required and where it is not allowed | A site plan showing each camera and its field of view | The camera survey shows what each camera actually sees |
| Specifications | Requirements for cameras and recorders | An equipment list checked against the requirements | Runs on existing cameras over RTSP or ONVIF; does not change their specification |
| Retention | How long recordings are kept | A storage calculation, and a periodic test of retrieving the oldest recording | Does not replace the recorder; search works on what is still within retention |
| Viewing and hand-over | Who may view, and when transfer or publication is allowed | A list of who can reach footage, and a log of every copy handed over | Search by description shortens the time to find the clip requested |
| Daily operation | Whether the text sets anything on monitoring; beyond that, an operating decision | Who watches the screens, and what is reported | Alerts with video evidence on what you define, such as entry to a restricted zone |
The options a facility has, and their trade-offs
Once a facility knows what it must do, the operating question remains: what happens with the cameras and footage every day? There are usually four options, and each has a cost:
- Record only, review when needed. The lowest cost, and enough to keep evidence. But incidents are known only afterwards, and finding a clip across dozens of cameras takes hours.
- More people watching screens. Better odds of seeing an incident live, but attention drops fast in front of many screens, and cost grows with every shift.
- Cameras with built-in analytics. Can suit a new site; on an existing one it means replacing working equipment, with analytics that vary by model.
- Video analytics on existing cameras. Cameras and recorders stay; software reads the same streams, alerts on what you define and makes footage searchable. This is what SquintPRO does, where the camera suits the use case.
The options combine. Most sites keep recording as it is, add analytics on the cameras covering the areas that matter most, and replace a camera only where the survey shows it unfit.
Hours of footage that nobody watches
A report comes in: an incident near the loading bay, some time on the night shift. With two cameras and a known time, finding it is quick. With twenty cameras and a six-hour window, it is 120 hours of footage, and the review often ends with nothing found.
An archive browsed by camera and time answers "what did this camera see then?", not "where did this happen?". With search by description, a person types what they are looking for in plain language, for example "white pickup truck in the last three hours", or supplies a reference photo, and SquintPRO returns the matching clips, each with its camera and time. Results are candidates, not verdicts: a person opens them and confirms the ones that matter.
Read more
The other side is knowing about an incident while it happens. With restricted-zone intrusion detection, you draw the zone on the camera image and set the hours, and SquintPRO alerts when a person or vehicle enters it, with a clip of what happened, into the control room or video management system you already use.
Relatedsearch by descriptionrestricted-zone intrusion detection
Where SquintPRO fits, and where it does not
SquintPRO is the AI video analytics platform Interkey builds. It connects to the IP cameras and recorders you already run, over RTSP or ONVIF, so compatible cameras are not replaced. It is licensed per camera stream, and a licensed stream can run as many use cases as the site needs without another licence. It deploys on-premise, so footage and detection records stay at your site, or in the cloud with recordings kept for 3, 6 or 12 months.
Read more
It fits a facility with working cameras that wants to use them: alerts on restricted-zone entry or a vehicle in a walkway, fast search when a clip is requested, and following a subject across cameras on a site map.
It does not fit the following, and we say so before any proposal:
- It does not decide whether your facility is covered; that is for the text and your legal team.
- It does not make a camera meet the technical specification, or replace installing it where the text requires.
- It does not replace the recorder for the required retention. Cloud retention (3, 6 or 12 months) is an operating option; compare it with the text.
- It does not use face recognition. It detects what happened, not who did it.
- It does not work on a camera that cannot see the area well. The guide to video analytics on existing CCTV shows how each camera is judged.
Footage inside the Kingdom, and support from Riyadh
Many government entities and sensitive facilities require footage to stay in the Kingdom, often on site. With on-premise deployment, SquintPRO runs on servers at your site, and neither footage nor detection records leave your network. If you choose the cloud, check the hosting location against your policy and the Personal Data Protection Law before choosing it.
Interkey builds and supports SquintPRO from Riyadh, with Arabic-speaking engineers working with security, facilities and IT teams across the Kingdom. We work alongside your legal team, not in its place: it decides what the facility must do; we show what the cameras do today and could add.
How Interkey helps
We start from the cameras you have, not from a product list. If recording alone meets your need, we say so.
-
List the cameras.
The cameras and recorders on each site, who owns each, and what each covers on the site plan.
-
Survey their fitness.
Which cameras suit analytics as they are, which need a change in position or settings, and which do not.
-
Choose the use cases.
What deserves an alert in each zone and shift, and who receives each type of alert.
-
Run a pilot.
One site, cameras that include the difficult views, with success criteria written before switch-on.
-
Operate and tune.
Alerts routed to the control room or video management system, tuned to real site conditions, with technical support after go-live.
Questions facilities ask about the Saudi security cameras law
Where can we read the official text of the Saudi security surveillance cameras law?
On the Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers site, which is the text to rely on. Read the current law and its implementing regulation with your legal team and security manager, not the published summaries, which disagree with each other and may not follow the latest amendment.
How do we know whether our facility is required to install surveillance cameras in Saudi Arabia?
The law and its regulation set the categories of facility that must install them. Your legal team matches the facility's activity and each of its sites against those categories and writes down the decision with its reference. If doubt remains, the competent security authority is the one to ask.
Is our current recorder enough for the retention period the law requires?
Size storage from the retention period in the text, the number of cameras, and the recording resolution and frame rate. Then test regularly that the oldest recording that should still exist can be retrieved. Many recorders overwrite the oldest footage when full, earlier than intended, without anyone noticing.
Does SquintPRO work on the surveillance cameras we already have installed?
In most cases, yes. It connects to cameras and recorders over RTSP or ONVIF, and a camera survey shows which are usable as they are, which need adjustment, and which do not suit the use case. SquintPRO does not change a camera's specification or position.
Does footage stay inside Saudi Arabia if we add video analytics?
With on-premise deployment, SquintPRO runs on servers at your site, and footage and detection records stay there. In the cloud, recordings are kept for 3, 6 or 12 months; check the hosting location against your policy and the Personal Data Protection Law before choosing it.
How is SquintPRO priced, and how long does a pilot on our cameras take?
It is licensed per camera stream, with as many use cases as the site needs on a licensed stream, and each quote is built from the number of streams and the deployment model. A pilot's length depends on the cameras, use cases and site conditions, usually weeks rather than days; we estimate it after the survey.
Next
Related pages
Next step
See SquintPRO on your own cameras
Tell us about the site, roughly how many cameras and recorders it has, and the areas that matter most. We will say which cameras suit analytics, and what a pilot on one site could measure.
Or directly
+966-11-2180999 [email protected]Tawuniya Towers, North Tower, 7th Floor, King Fahad Highway, Olaya, P.O. Box 56835, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia