Privacy Technology for Video Footage: Facit’s Complete Guide

Today’s video surveillance technology answers the challenge of managing almost unmanageable amounts of video footage. 

Information governance leads, data protection officers, compliance managers and heads of security are tasked with disclosing from it, redacting from it and defending it. This guide explores the image capture technologies, how footage is stored and how advanced automated video and audio redaction technology answers the practical and legal demands of holding and managing private data.

#The life cycle of video footage

The life cycle of video footage runs from Capture through Storage to Processing and being made ready for Disclosure. 

Most organisations consider the challenges in just that order, but in doing so, the most difficult challenge is left to last. They discover the cost implications and workflow challenges when they arrive at assessing the difficulties and legal obligations of Disclosure. In comparison, acquiring cameras is relatively cheap and easy.

#Capture footage

There are specific downstream commitments for each of the four main capture technologies:

#Fixed CCTV

Because your organisation almost certainly owns or uses fixed CCTV. You need to understand what a fixed camera estate commits you to, from installation onwards. 

Pay attention to data minimisation. By that we mean using CCTV only for its intended purpose, such as security monitoring; be careful when moving into potentially intrusive surveillance, such as employee monitoring.

It’s best practice to collect and retain only footage that’s necessary for your aims. For example, delete recordings when they are no longer needed—if they are not deleted, people’s privacy is at risk, and you are in danger of a court finding against you.   

Focus on areas where CCTV is necessary, such as entrances, exits and high-risk zones. But avoid private spaces—such as changing rooms, private offices and hotel rooms.

#Dash cams

Dash cams bring with them their own challenges. Dash cam footage can contain personal data that must be kept safe. Those people have rights and can request access to copies of their data, when businesses will need to redact faces, number plates and other personally identifying information.

With data scattered across different vehicles in different geographical locations, you must put robust processes in place. Automated management and redaction, overseen by trained personnel, minimises the chance of data breaches.

#Drones

Airborne capture is arriving faster than the rules can evolve, but you shouldn’t believe this excuses you from privacy regulations, data security and data management best practices. As drones can see into areas normally unseen by other cameras, there are potentially even more opportunities for individuals to issue DSARs for copies of their personal footage.

#Body-worn cameras (BWC)

Body-worn cameras are becoming the first choice for capturing evidence, providing an objective view of events, increasing trust and protecting those being recorded and the BWC wearer. However, the disclosure cost when footage is requested under GDPR or other privacy regulations is often difficult to assess because of how body-worn cameras are deployed and what they record. 

While the public sector sees the most widespread application of BWC, there are other applications for body-worn cameras outside policing, such as in retail and shopping centres.

You need to be aware of the redaction problems body-worn footage creates. Video redaction processes are challenging to implement, with the most significant challenge being ready access to compliant footage. 

#Where your footage lives—on-premise, cloud and VSaaS

No matter the capture technology you employ, the result can be terabytes of video files. They have to be stored somewhere, and for many organisations it’s a real challenge, compounded by the need to comply with data protection requirements such as GDPR and HIPAA

Data breaches, unauthorised hacking and other cyber threats need constant mitigation, including:

• Encryption—ensures footage remains unreadable to unauthorised users

• User Access Control—granular user access controls, customisable permissions and activity logs are essential

• Automated Data Protection—to minimise the risk of data loss owing to failure or cyberattacks

• Managing Access to Stored Footage—prevent data breaches with secure authentication measures. Administrators must be able to track access histories

Where do you store terabytes of potentially sensitive data securely? The main options are keeping footage on-premises, in the cloud, or across both, with some installations using video surveillance as a service (VSaaS). 

Some pros and cons:

1. On Premise—full control over hardware and no reliance on the internet, balanced against high upfront costs, limited scalability and potential vulnerabilities to physical damage

2. Cloud—scalability, remote access, automatic backups and reduced hardware maintenance, balanced against dependence on stable internet connections and ongoing subscription costs. High-risk footage should be stored within the organisation’s own IT infrastructure

3. VSaaS—is more flexible and future-proof through real-time monitoring, simplified management, scalability through cloud integration, remote access and AI-powered analytics, balanced against similar issues to Cloud. Choose a supplier that provides easy expansion of storage, cameras and features.

#What processes the footage: redaction and anonymisation software

In a world where most people are caught on CCTV dozens of times a day, it is incumbent on organisations to protect people’s privacy. It’s why face-blur software is a requirement rather than a nicety. 

#Why video redaction technology is essential

If you need to maintain the integrity and context of an image, blurring is your best choice. It de-emphasises personal information, but it leaves the context of an image well alone. People can see the blurred components as part of the larger picture. 

Today’s face-blurring technology enables you to blur selected areas while controlling blur intensity. Face blurring is automated, so it’s fast. But, at the same time, face blurring software also helps organisations:

• Protect Privacy—such as in research studies, interviews  or documentary filmmaking

• Comply with Legal Requirements—comply with regulations such as GDPR by anonymising faces in legal proceedings or investigations, where faces and other distinguishing elements are considered personal data

• Tackle Security Concerns—blur faces to protect employee, customer and other visitor identities

• Answer Privacy Challenges in Media Production—media content such as news reporting or reality TV shows, individuals who haven’t consented to being filmed need their privacy rights to be maintained

• Anonymise Data—maintain individuals’ anonymity when video is used in research or in training AI models 

• Protect Public Safety—in protest and crime scenes, for example, faces can be obscured, while important contextual information is still conveyed

• Support Ethical Considerations—many organisations have ethical practices that respect individuals’ privacy and dignity

Those are the core video redaction software applications. But the range of situations redaction software gets used in can be far wider than expected. Facit has seen:

• Ride-sharing and cabs—companies such as Uber and Lyft often permit in-car cameras for safety and to settle disputes. Their footage will contain sensitive information such as passengers’ faces, licence plates and other identifying information that must be protected to comply with privacy laws. Video redaction software automatically blurs that information before footage is reviewed or shared with third parties

• Complying with Transportation Regulations—video redaction software, deployed in airports, train stations or bus terminals helps transportation authorities to comply with transport security regulations

• Real estate privacy concerns—with virtual property tours and remote house viewings, real estate agents and homeowners often use video recordings to showcase properties. Video redaction software enables real estate professionals to blur private details, such as family photos, personal belongings or even home security systems.

• Property Tour Redaction in High-Profile Homes—high-profile individuals, including celebrities, politicians and business people renting or selling homes, demand privacy. In these cases, video redaction software is an essential tool

• Public Transit Security and Surveillance—ensuring the safety of passengers and preventing criminal activity generates a massive amount of video data, including images of passengers, drivers and pedestrians. Redacting images, including faces, clothing details, and identifying features, from footage can enable recordings to comply with privacy legislation while still being fully functional for security purposes

• Employee Privacy Protection in the Workplace—while video surveillance can promote security and potentially productivity, it can record sensitive or private moments. It is here that video redaction can protect employee privacy

• Security and Fraud Detection in Casinos—advanced surveillance systems are employed to detect fraudulent activities and ensure fair play. Video redaction sustains guests’ privacy while allowing authorised personnel to review footage

• Training and Best Practice—some are using Identity Cloak to redact their own footage to produce training materials. Personally identifiable information can be redacted easily and custom training material produced at a fraction of the price required for a bespoke video from a training company.

#How to choose video redaction software

There are four key characteristics when you’re considering what to look for when choosing video redaction software:

1. Automation that holds up to messy footage—AI does most of the work, but you must be able to easily blur elements manually, if required

2. Able to react to incidents in minutes—does the technology enable you to share compliant video with law enforcement and other agencies within minutes?

3. Secure handling by design—industries with strict privacy regulations may demand an on-premise solution that protects sensitive footage from additional risks

4. Works with different types of video format—CCTV, body-worn, dashcam, mobile uploads and proprietary players can produce a variety of video formats, as well as with and without audio and in various lighting qualities. Your video redaction must be able to take them all in its stride.

How do you handle footage that is genuinely hard to redact, that could take days or even weeks to process without powerful automated redaction technology? Don't assume you are only to redact faces. There are almost countless kinds of personal data that may be identified, as well as visible computer screens, ID tags or reflections. The biggest challenge is to ensure all these various types of information are fully redacted before the footage is exported.

Crowds and multiple vehicles normally rule out manual redaction. If, for example, you process crowded venues or locations, you will need a solution that can automatically recognise and redact people even if they are only partially visible. An advanced solution should also be able to track people or vehicles that reenter the frame.

#Manage complex video projects with these features:

• Support different types of video footage

• Support basic video editing

• Process long videos without unexpected spikes in video redaction costs

• No limitations on file size or duration, and pricing per video

• Built-in screen recorder to import any file that can be played onscreen

• Screen zoom and cropping to redact only the sections you need

#Compare an On-premise with a Cloud solution 

Find out how Identity Cloak compares against Ocucon Pixelate. 

#What the technology has to deliver when footage is requested

Legal requirements and environmental challenges exert real pressures on video redaction solutions. In 2024, we looked at how evidential video procedures have had to change over the preceding decade, noting how requests for video evidence had increased.

The biggest increase in DSARs (data subject access requests) came after GDPR was introduced in 2018, and people became more aware of their data privacy rights. Then, during the Covid pandemic, there was another peak as employees investigated data held on them by their employer.

In the legal world, there has been a comparable increase in using video evidence in criminal cases. And in the commercial sphere, a large proportion of video data requests are initiated by law firms and insurance companies as the first stage in their Discovery and Claims procedures. 

Video footage must be carefully redacted to protect sensitive information and to comply with legal and data protection requirements during prosecution file preparation. 

• Faces of uninvolved individuals, minors and vulnerable persons must be redacted 

• Identifiable features, such as tattoos, licence plates and addresses, should be obscured

• Legally privileged or confidential information, including documents visible in footage must be removed

• Audio must be redacted in order to exclude private conversations, sensitive witness details or legally inadmissible statements

• Law enforcement techniques, operational tactics and security-sensitive material must be blurred or muted when necessary.

The sheer volume of video and audio data, and increasing demand for redacted footage via DSARs, places increasing demands on video redaction technology.

#Video redaction technology for first responders

In an environment where there is increasing violence, aggression and abuse against frontline emergency staff, we need to understand what emergency services need from redaction software. 

As we know, BWCs provide an objective record of events.  The challenge is how to safely manage and share this digital evidence without breaching privacy laws and compromising ongoing investigations—the role of video redaction technology. Identity Cloak enables blue light services to process footage fast by automating face, licence plate and speech detection. 

In the public sector, redaction software is no longer optional, it’s a safeguard for emergency workers, a necessity for legal compliance and a powerful tool for building public trust. 

#Fulfilling the promise of private members’ clubs

As private members' clubs move from sanctuaries for senior executives, entrepreneurs, investors and creatives, into coworking spaces, boutique hotels, spas, restaurants and private bars, the complexity and volume of CCTV footage has bloomed.

Clubs’ environments are also particularly challenging because their members are not only privacy-conscious, but also highly informed about compliance laws. Consequently, they expect clubs to meet - and exceed GDPR standards.

But it’s not just the mainstream video redaction challenges. The story today is members' clubs and weaponised subject access requests, as a form of retaliation. If a member loses their privileges or has their membership revoked. Emotions can run high, and some former members may demand to see hours of footage, hoping to find a way to challenge the club or threaten legal action. 

#How the technology got here

Here’s a short rundown of  how facial recognition developed into what it is now:

1. Early Concepts and Foundations (1960s to 1970s)—Woody Bledsoe and his colleagues developed semi-automated systems to process facial features.

2. Eigenfaces and the Rise of Algorithms (1980-1990s)—the ability to reduce facial image complexity and identify key features to distinguish one face from another was the revolution from Eigenfaces. Later, it was demonstrated how Eigenfaces could be used in real-time facial recognition.

3. Facial Recognition Enters the Mainstream (2000s)—in 2001, facial recognition technology was used to scan fans’ faces at the 2001 Super Bowl, seeking to identify criminals. Despite privacy controversy, the application showed the growing potential for FRT in large-scale security operations. At about this time, commercial facial recognition systems started to appear in government applications, such as airports and private areas such as casinos.

4. The AI Revolution and Deep Learning (2010s)—convolutional neural networks (CNNs), Facebook’s DeepFace and Google’s FaceNet further evolved the science and application of facial recognition technology. These systems reliably identified faces at different angles, a significant improvement over earlier methods.

5. Widespread Adoption and Ethical Concerns (Late 2010s to 2020s)—FRT expanded across many sectors as it became more accurate and accessible.  Concerns about privacy intrusion, and racial and gender bias have led to regulation at government, state or city level.

If we look at the privacy technology trends Facit picked out in 2022, we identified:

1. More global privacy regulations

2. Unprecedented levels of fines for data breaches

3. Data privacy transparency becomes a customer priority

4. Companies to invest more in privacy technology

5. The challenge of managing the increase in DSARs

6. Privacy technology taking centre stage

7. A changing privacy landscape among video redaction customers

The Agile Business Consortium frames business agility as an organisation-wide, people-centred competency — the ability to keep delivering value to customers, staff and shareholders in a world that has become markedly less predictable.

At Facit, we look into why technology choices decide how fast a business can adapt. Identity Cloak is designed with speed, efficiency and effectiveness in mind. We stress best-in-class intuitive interfaces, closer collaboration between system users, and the most effective cost control for the business.

#Go deeper: privacy technology by topic

1. Body-worn cameras: BWC deployment, what the devices record, and the redaction load that follows

2. Facial recognition and AI: How the technology developed, where it is used, and the privacy questions it raises

3. Cloud, on-premise and VSaaS: Where footage is stored and processed, and what each deployment model commits you to

4. Choosing redaction software: Selection criteria, and where the alternatives usually break

5. Complex and high-volume footage: Multi-source SARs, mixed formats, and the features that handle them

6. Technology in the emergency services: Body-worn evidence, standardisation across forces, and evidential redaction at scale