How To Choose The Best Video Anonymisation Software
Video anonymisation is the process of obscuring identifiable information, such as faces, license plates or other personal data, in video footage.
In order to stay compliant with privacy regulations, such as GDPR and FERPA, organisations that record videos for theft prevention, staff protection, or incident reporting need to anonymise videos when they share that footage.
In this article, we’ll share tips on how to choose the right type of video anonymisation software depending on your industry and country-specific privacy regulations.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Anonymisation falls under the "De-Identification Standard" of the HIPAA guidance. HIPAA’s anonymisation rule must be followed to take care of Patient Health Information (PHI). You can read more about HIPAA requirements in the context of video footage in this post.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
FERPA is a federal legislation designed to protect personal privacy in educational settings. Among other things, it gives parents some control over the way a child’s personally identifiable information is disclosed in their educational record.
See how to stay compliant with FERPA when sharing video footage.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
GDPR and its UK equivalent, UK GDPR, stipulate that anonymisation is required when sharing personal information with parties that do not have consent to view it.
For example, when a request is made to a data controller for a video containing a subject of interest but also other people, all other subjects must be anonymised to protect their identities.
Read more about GDPR and UK GDPR requirements for compliant footage sharing.
What needs to be anonymised in video footage
In order to share video compliantly, organisations need to anonymise not only people’s faces, but also other types of personally identifiable information.
Here are the most common types of personally identifiable information that need to be blurred:
Faces and distinguishing features
The faces of all people except the subject of interest must be redacted. Additionally, organisations need to blur elements that could reveal a person’s identity, such as distinctive clothing, uniforms, or tattoos.Objects containing personal information
Elements caught on video that might contain personal information on white boards, computer screens, or name tags should be anonymised to protect against data breaches.Vehicle licence plates
When publishing or sharing footage containing licence plates, they should be anonymised to protect the owner’s identity and their personal data.
3 types of video anonymisation solutions
The most common options for video anonymisation include:
Video editing tools
Specialized video redaction tools
Real-time video redaction software
All of them have advantages and disadvantages, and choosing the right software depends on your organisation’s needs and the frequency of footage requests.
Here’s an overview of these solutions and their pros and cons.
| Anonymisation software options | Pros | Cons | Best for… |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generic video editing tools | Simple to use and affordable (or free). | Require frame-by-frame editing and may not work for industries with strict data protection regulations like HIPAA. | One-off video footage requests that don’t require urgent processing. |
| Specialised video anonymisation tools | Automate video anonymisation, speeding up SARs processing. | Specialized tools can automate video redaction. They may be on-premise or cloud-based. Some of the tools are priced by minute, making it hard to budget for video redaction. | Ongoing requests for footage that require a quick turnaround, for example, to share incident footage with law enforcement. |
| Real-time video anonymisation software | Add a masking layer on top of footage while keeping recorded CCTV videos intact. | Anonymise data in real time, but can’t be used for recorded footage redaction. | Protect personal data when live footage is supervised. |
In some cases, companies can complete requests by anonymising footage frame by frame.
Especially for videos with multiple people or longer video clips that may not be practical, since redacting a single video can take days.
Especially for companies facing a growing number of SARs, it may be worth looking into a solution that can help automate video anonymisation.
We share our tips on how to evaluate different options depending on your video redaction needs below.
Top video anonymisation requirements by industry
We recommend considering the following factors when evaluating different tools for video redaction, including:
Types of footage you expect to need to redact and footage formats
Additional data protection requirements
Multi-user vs single-user licensing
Ability to redact audio in addition to videos
Here’s what we recommend taking into account by industry:
| Industry | Common industry challenges | Top capabilities to look for |
|---|---|---|
| RETAIL | Footage with large numbers of moving people | Automated tracking and blurring for moving people |
| Environments with multiple types of sensitive data on screen (name tags, credit cards, IDs, store signs) | Masking for additional types of PPI, such as credit cards, IDs, name tags, and signage | |
| Live monitoring in a control room for theft prevention and surveillance of critical areas | Live blurring to protect shoppers’ privacy for supervised footage | |
| EDUCATION | Footage of children wearing identifiable clothing | Blurring for both faces and bodies when footage shows students in identifiable clothing |
| Team members wearing badges that need to be blurred | Ability to process footage from CCTV, mobile phones and bodycams | |
| Need to combine footage from different data sources, including security bodycams and mobile phone recordings | Automated detection and blurring for licence plates and people | |
| Transportation and logistics | Need to redact crowded areas with moving people | High level of accuracy for videos of crowds, including overlapping blurred areas |
| Footage containing people and vehicles at the same time | Ability to anonymise vehicle plates and people in the same footage | |
| Limited team availability to redact video requests with a short turnaround, including fare dodgers and incidents | Ease of use to reduce workload across teams | |
| Healthcare | Different types of areas with different levels of sensitivity, from waiting rooms to ERs | Availability of different blur modes, including reverse blur for sensitive areas |
| Footage contains different types of PII, from faces to IDs, name tags, and licence plates | Ability to handle different redaction scenarios, from car parks to ER waiting rooms | |
| Stricter privacy requirements for healthcare organisations | Secure on-premise data processing | |
| Venues and museums | Need to process different types of footage, including bodycams | Ability to redact footage from bodycams, CCTV cameras and mobile phones |
| Footage of crowded areas combining people and vehicles | High accuracy for blurring out PII in crowded, fast-moving environments | |
| Quick processing to provide footage to law enforcement | Ability to process videos quickly to respond to incidents | |
| Local governments | Frequently outdated VMS or CCTV tools | Ability to handle footage from legacy video surveillance systems |
| Footage from a variety of environments, from parking lots and public spaces to government venues | Different blurring settings to match different environments | |
| Limited budgets and need for planning | Predictable pricing |
Download this checklist to quickly compare video anonymisation tools by industry or read this article for suggestions on how to choose the right software for you.
You can also keep reading to see how our solution, Identity Cloak, helps organisations quickly and easily redact video requests.
Identity Cloak for video anonymisation
Identity Cloak is used by 130+ companies, including government organisations, hospitals, international retail chains, museums, and educational institutions. It can be used for both live video redaction and for anonymising recorded video footage.
Identity Cloak is available as a desktop version and as Milestone XProtect plug-ins.
Identity Cloak desktop version for video anonymisation
As opposed to cloud-based tools, Identity Cloak is fully desktop-based, doesn’t share data outside of your organisation, and can be air-gapped.
Its key features include:
Automated detection and tracking
Flexible blur settings
Support for legacy formats
Audio redaction
Automated detection and tracking
Identity Cloak’s AI automatically identifies people and vehicles in video footage and tracks them as they move around.
The tool anonymises by default, so that you only need to un-blur the subject of the video with one click. Blur mode can be changed based on the video requirements.
Flexible blur settings
Depending on the type of venue, you can choose between face, body, and full-screen blur. You can also adjust blur shape, density, and size across the footage, add mask signage, IDs, computer screens, and credit cards.
Legacy format support
Identity Cloak imports AVI and MP4 files.
Legacy formats can be imported through a screen recorder, so that you don’t have to convert them.
Audio redaction
For mobile phone and bodycam footage, Identity Cloak supports audio redaction, so that you can edit out personal information in the audio track inside the same tool.
Identity Cloak pricing
Our plans are based on the number of videos, with all Identity Cloak features available on all plans.
There are no restrictions on the duration of the videos — or the size of the files that you can import or export.
You can download Identity Cloak for a free 7-day trial to test it on your typical video projects.
Identity Cloak for Milestone XProtect
Identity Cloak Milestone plug-ins include live redaction for supervised footage and built-in redaction for recorded footage.
If you’re relying on Milestone to manage your CCTV footage, find out more about our Milestone plug-ins here.
Success stories from companies using Identity Cloak
Our clients include multinational retail chains, NHS hospitals, school districts, and organisations like Tate Museums, Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), and others. See why customers choose Identity Cloak to speed up video anonymisation and reduce redaction costs:
Retail stores
Healthcare organisations
Educational institutions
Local governments
Venues and museums
Transportation and logistics
Retail case studies
Retail companies are using Identity Cloak to anonymise videos necessary for in-store incident reporting, inventory tracking and management, and employee investigations.
Here are some of our customers’ success stories:
This retailer processes 12-15 video requests per month, at 96% lower redaction costs.
River Island avoids compliance risks by completing video footage requests in a timely manner, across multiple legacy CCTV systems.
This grocery retailer achieves “massive” time savings.
Read more about using Identity Cloak for retail organisations here.
Healthcare customer success stories
Healthcare organisations using Identity Cloak protect patient and staff privacy by anonymising videos of incidents in operating rooms and other sensitive environments, altercations in ERs and waiting areas, and parking lot incidents involving people and vehicles.
Here are some examples of healthcare organisations using Identity Cloak:
The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust redacts complex requests that involve months of videos
King’s College Hospital processes SARs from patients and insurance and law firms while reducing staff workload
Barts Health NHS Trust uses features like audio redaction and zoom-and-crop to complete complex SARs, including videos from distant cameras and conversations with sensitive information
Find out more about using Identity Cloak for compliant video anonymisation that doesn’t expose you to data risks.
Educational organisations case studies
Educational organisations use Identity Cloak to quickly blur out personal data in footage of interpersonal altercations, incidents in classrooms and hallways, and recordings of parking lot accidents and vandalism.
Here are some of their success stories:
Chignecto Central Regional Centre for Education in Nova Scotia reduces redaction time by 80%
North Plainfield School District in New Jersey uses Identity Cloak to handle a growing number of incident footage and parent requests
Witherslack Group, the UK’s Leading SEN Education Provider, manages SARs in-house across 36 locations
Read more about using Identity Cloak in education.
Success stories from local governments
Local government organisations use Identity Cloak to automatically blur personal data in CCTV footage and bodycam videos for incident reporting, parking and traffic rules enforcement, media, insurance, and general public requests.
Here’s how Identity Cloak supports local government organisations:
The Paris Police Department automates the redaction of faces and personal identifiers in CCTV footage
This local authority in London redacts footage without having to export files off-site.
Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court redacts an increasing number of footage requests without having to manage a separate video redaction product
See how local government organisations can simplify video blurring with Identity Cloak.
Venues and museums case studies
Venues and museums rely on Identity Cloak to quickly mask personal data in venue incident footage for law enforcement, clips requested by insurers or legal teams, and security team incident analysis and training videos.
Here are some of their success stories:
Tate museums switched to Identity Cloak from manual editing and outsourcing to be able to share redacted videos with law enforcement in under 30 minutes
Wembley Park security management team switched to Identity Cloak instead of manually editing footage frame by frame
Read more about using Identity Cloak inside venues or museums.
Success stories for transportation and logistics companies
Transportation and logistics organisations automate blurring of personal information, from faces to licence plates, to verify accident claims, provide proof of fare dodging, and improve operational efficiency.
Here are some examples from Identity Cloak customers:
Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) transport group completes redaction 90% faster after switching from outsourcing blurring at €700 per clip
Kingston Technology redacts videos for disputes around missing items, incorrect shipments or delivery issues
Nottingham City Transport redacts footage from over 4,000 cameras with minimal manual intervention
See why transportation and logistics organisations choose Identity Cloak to complete video anonymisation projects.
Identity Cloak free trial
Try out Identity Cloak to see how it can speed up video anonymisation and help you stay compliant with privacy requirements. No credit card required.
