A camera inside the shop, aimed at the shop

Last updated 31 October 2026.

A shop camera is usually asked for after a theft, or because the mall’s insurer mentioned it, or because the landlord wants the loading door covered. The mounting itself has no price in this catalogue. The HDB flat camera page already says quote on inspection for a camera inside your own home, and it refuses the common corridor. The same refusal holds for a shop: we will not put a camera on a town-council wall, on a mall soffit outside the lease line, or in a position that looks into the next tenant’s unit or a neighbour’s flat upstairs. “Just the corridor” is the request we decline.

PDPC’s advisory guidelines on selected topics, revised May 2024, are the privacy note. CCTV footage is personal data whether or not the camera also records audio. In a place open to the public, where people can reasonably expect cameras, an organisation may rely on the publicly available exception. The guidelines still call a notice good practice. The example they give is a shopping mall. A staff-only office or a room behind a keycard is not that example. There, the legitimate-interests exception needs a risk assessment and a way to tell people, or the organisation seeks consent. The guidelines do not require the notice to mark the exact camera position. A sign at the entrance that says the shop is under CCTV is the usual form. We can fix a sign you supply. We do not draft your data-protection policy, and we do not decide that your camera is lawful.

Audio is the part people add without thinking. A camera with a microphone in a fitting room, a clinic room, or pointed at a staff conversation is a different collection from a lens over the shop floor. If you want audio, say so in the first message. The default we will mount, if we mount anything, is discussed as video unless you have already decided the audio and the notice. We do not switch a microphone on “because the camera has one”.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking. A roller shutter is a different product and stays on the shutter page.

The bracket goes into a substrate that can hold it. A concrete soffit can take a proper anchor. A ceiling tile cannot. A dome screwed only to a mineral tile will sag, and the tile is the ceiling page’s problem afterwards, still quote on inspection if it is a mineral tile. The cable is the second half of the job. A recorder on an existing socket, with a cable that does not need a new circuit, is still quote on inspection as a mounting, because no camera row exists. The moment the job needs a new socket, it is the electrical page: S$55 only if it is a socket on an existing circuit, done by a licensed electrical worker, and the camera remains quote on inspection on top. We do not hide a new circuit inside “camera installation”.

The aim is checked from the lens, not from the sales talk. The frame should be the shop floor, the till and the door you control. If the test view includes the neighbour’s counter, the camera is moved or declined. PDPC’s guidelines say a camera that incidentally sees beyond the premises is not automatically forbidden, but the collection still has to be what a reasonable person would consider appropriate. Filming the next shop “in case” fails that test. We will not sell the wider view as a feature.

An alarm panel is the same honesty. There is no monitoring price, no monthly fee, and no response time. We do not answer an alarm at 2am. If the mall wants a connection to the building alarm, that is the building’s contractor. A door contact on a shutter is quote on inspection, and it must not stop the fire shutter from dropping. A contact that holds a fire door open is the closer page’s failure mode, not a security upgrade. SCDF’s concern is that the door still closes.

Count the cameras, say indoor or the shopfront you control, and say whether a recorder and a screen are already in the shop. Send the view you want, from the proposed position, even if it is a phone photo standing on a ladder. Say if any camera records audio. Say if the cable needs a new socket. We do not choose a brand for you, and we do not quote a brand we have not priced.

A mall may forbid tenant cameras on the common area and may require the building’s own system at the shopfront. Ask the centre before you buy the cameras. We will not argue with the house rules after the holes are drilled.

Mounting is not monitoring, and the corridor is not the tenancy.

Questions a shop should ask

Ask these before a camera is bought.

1. Is every camera inside the tenancy, and what does the test view show?
2. Will any camera record audio, a fitting room, or a staff-only room?
3. Where will the notice be?
4. Does the mall or the town council allow this fixing?
5. Is the recorder on an existing socket?
6. Who answers the alarm? It will not be this company.
7. Does any contact sit on a fire door or a fire shutter?
8. Is there a price per camera in the quote? There is not one on this site.

The wall outside the glass is the usual mistake.

PDPC’s May 2024 guidelines, paragraphs 4.33 to 4.42, are the privacy source. Public areas may use the publicly available exception. Private areas need another basis, often legitimate interests with an assessment, or consent. Notices are encouraged and need not reveal the exact camera. Collection beyond the premises still has to be appropriate. We mount hardware. We do not give a legal opinion that your system complies.

EMA’s licensed-worker rules apply the moment the job is a new point or a new cable, as the electrical page explains. A plug into a socket that is already there is not a new circuit. It is still a mounting with no printed price.

HDB’s shop guide puts lightings and other fittings on common property with the town council. A camera is that kind of fitting if it leaves the tenancy. Fire doors and fire shutters keep their ability to close. SCDF clause 8.1.7 also means a camera or its cable must not block an exit sign. BCA is involved if the job becomes building work. A bracket is not that.

Official pages

• PDPC advisory guidelines on selected topics, revised May 2024, CCTV section
• HDB renovation guide for shop tenants and owners, December 2025
• MOM: workplace safety duties

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices the permit-exempt visit. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices hacking, a new layout, and an HDB renovation permit. Homey Furnishing is not a property agency, not a CEA practice, and not a vector-control operator.

How you're charged

A job that already has a sentence on HomeySG uses that sentence. The hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so. There is no fuel surcharge and no published night premium except the mall overnight row. A shop does not inherit a flat’s price just because the fitting looks similar.

The camera and the alarm are quote on inspection. A socket or a circuit is added only when that electrical row matches, and only as licensed work. No monitoring fee is added because none is published.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Use a socket that is already in the store room. A new circuit for one recorder is the expensive half.
• Buy the cameras after the mall says the shopfront is allowed. Returns cost more than waiting a week.
• One notice at the door is enough. The guidelines do not ask you to mark every dome.
• Do not add audio “because it is in the box”.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

Electrical rows can sit beside a camera. The camera itself has no row.

Anything not in that table is quote on inspection.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630. The reply uses a band already printed on HomeySG, or it says quote on inspection.

• Cameras inside an HDB flat
• The socket, if one is needed
• A door that must still close
• Exit signs the camera must not cover
• The rest of an HDB shop