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Tate Museum Boosts Security Response with Facit’s Identity Cloak Redaction Software

Tate museums use CCTV for public safety, crime prevention, and staff and visitor protection. They also collect some personal data, including images and other information from CCTV footage.
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Overview

Unfortunately, high footfall venues and tourist attractions are hotspots for public nuisance, theft, non-payment, at worst terrorism, and at best accidents that still have to be processed in accordance with data protection laws and health and safety policies.

In the case of the four Tate museums there is also the security of valuable art to be taken into account.

CCTV Use in Tate Museums

Tate museums use CCTV for public safety, crime prevention, and staff and visitor protection. They also collect some personal data, including images and other information from CCTV footage.

However, the museums are transparent about their data handling practices and comply with data protection laws. Visitors can access information about how Tate handles personal data, including CCTV footage, and can make requests related to their personal data in the form of a subject access request.

The Problem:

Public Safety, Art Security and GDPR Compliance

For high profile venues like the Tate’s four UK museums - Tate Modern and Tate Britain in London, plus sites in Liverpool and St Ives - security is a tough nut to crack.

These spaces welcome millions of visitors every year which makes them vulnerable to a range of incidents from vandalism to terrorism. On top of that, there’s the added responsibility of protecting priceless works of art, many of which are on loan from private collectors and global institutions.

Tate’s security team faced two key demands:

1. Deterrence
Create an environment that discourages crime and keeps visitors safe.

2. Rapid incident response
When something does happen, have a quick and effective response.

However, meeting these demands was getting harder with GDPR legislation that requires any video footage shared externally to protect the privacy of all individuals not directly involved in the incident.

To enable the police to act quickly on evidence Tate needed to redact CCTV footage quickly,which was proving costly and time consuming using manual methods or outsourcing to third parties.

The police couldn’t process unedited footage, and the ICO says businesses can’t plead “lack of redaction resources,” so Tate needed an in-house video processing solution.


The Solution: Facit’s Identity Cloak

Tate turned to Facit and chose their Identity Cloak redaction software - a smart, AI driven, rapid response redaction tool that enables security teams to edit video in-house, in real time and in full compliance with GDPR.

With Identity Cloak Tate’s security team can:

• Instantly find the relevant footage of an incident.

• Click to tag and track individuals of interest.

• Automatically blur or mask all other individuals in the video.

• Generate a compliance ready redacted preview in minutes.

• Export the final video securely and share with police or other third parties.

From start to finish the video redaction process takes around 15 to 30 minutes which is a huge improvement on traditional methods that can take 3 to 5 days.

“The investment in Identity Cloak has been excellent value, It allows us to maintain high standards of security and compliance while being agile enough to respond fast when it counts.”

Barry Palmer, Head of Safety and Security at Tate.

Results: Faster Response, Better Outcomes and Stronger Compliance

With Identity Cloak the Tate now has a powerful tool in their security response toolkit. Edited video footage can be shared with the police almost immediately after an incident which increases the chances of resolving a situation, by identifying suspects and preventing repeat offences.

Identity Cloak Benefits:

• GDPR Compliance
Footage is redacted in-house, securely and quickly.

• Real-Time Police Support
Police can act while incidents are still fresh.

• Operational Efficiency
Reduces cost and time spent on third party video editing.

• Risk Reduction
Protects the Tate’s assets, visitors and reputation.

• ROI
The system has paid for itself quickly, not just financially but also by providing peace of mind.

Summary

Identity Cloak has changed the game for Tate’s security. Now, GDPR-compliant video redaction is achieved in minutes.

Visitor Numbers at Tate Museums:

• Tate Modern: Nearly 5 million annually – UK’s third most visited attraction

• Tate Britain: 1.5 million

• Tate Liverpool: 700,000

• Tate St Ives: 240,000

The safety of such large numbers of visitors to Tate venues, plus risks to assets, property and the wellbeing of staff and the public, means rapid response to incidents is a ‘must have’ which includes the ability to share evidence in a compliant format in time for the authorities to act.

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