The Data Protection Act is sometimes wrongly cited as a law that can prevent photos being taken without the subject's permission.
For example, last Christmas, amateur photographer David Elder said that an Edinburgh council official
stopped him taking photos of the city's Winter Wonderland event on the grounds that he would be in breach of Data Protection laws.
The ICO spokeswoman confirmed that the Data Protection Act does not prevent someone taking photos in the
street without the subject's consent, provided that the images are for 'personal use' and the camera is not being used to harass people.
The spokeswoman also confirmed that the ICO treats images published on social networking websites, such as Facebook, as 'personal use' - in a similar way to 'family albums'.
However, the ICO urged photographers to adopt a 'common sense' approach.
The spokeswoman stressed that, although background shots of passers-by will not normally breach the Data Protection Act, images of a small group of clearly identifiable people, sent for publication to a newspaper for example, may be considered an infringement.