Cameras, video analytics and legislation: top video privacy trends of 2022
In 2020, there were as many as 5.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK, with the government controlling less than 4% and the majority being held by private homeowners and companies (1).
The dramatic rise in live feeds, online activity, and general surveillance - in both public and private spheres - is generating a rapidly growing volume of video captured by CCTV cameras, smartphones, dash cams, and body-worn cameras - to name a few.
What does this mean for individuals’ privacy and businesses’ attitudes towards it?
The pandemic has sparked an enormous increase in cyber attacks - 47% of people falling for phishing scams while working from home, and more than half a million people being affected by cyber attacks on video conference calling services between February and May 2020 (2,3). In many cases, this is due to a lack of security measures and failure to have privacy built in.
With ever growing surveillance becoming even more of an “unstoppable force”, we are now seeing an increased awareness and appreciation that privacy considerations must be incorporated from the start of any product development, business practices or new software deployments - and companies and governments are taking note.
2022 will see Big Tech coming under increasing fire, as they start to reckon with the effects of reputational damage in the aftermath of the 2021 Facebook Papers. Having witnessed numerous cyber-security breaches, data leaks, oil pipeline shutdowns, ransomware attacks, whistleblowers, and misuses of data; the public is in tandem becoming increasingly aware of the consequences of poor data management. Consumers are demanding greater data protection, and lawmakers are following suit across the globe.
This article will cover some of the video privacy trends and challenges we may expect to see over the coming year, and how businesses can stay ahead of the curve.
1. Increase in video capture and usage for commercial gain and security
Increase in live video analytics by the public and private sector
We will undoubtedly see a rise in live video capturing for safety and accountability. Seven US states now mandate body-worn cameras for police officers and they are also common practice with UK police. Several other industries such as transport, retail, and healthcare have also had an increased rollout (4,5).
In parallel, both public and private organisations are turning more towards video analytics, as they can be useful in many different contexts; they can help in saving time for CCTV camera operators, help efficiency in monitoring places for crime, and can be integrated into other systems - i.e. counting footfall at different locations - as well as use for smart parking, automatic license plate recognition, and facial recognition (6). AI-powered video analytics offer advanced solutions for organisations and can reduce the burden of having to wade through a tonne of video footage to access relevant data (7). Businesses particularly that have a large volume of surveillance cameras operating require a lot of manpower to monitor their estate - video analytics will be a life-saver as the sophisticated AI in these systems can review images pixel by pixel and can be tailored to suit a wide variety of business needs (8).
Video analytics will also start to be used to help tackle issues like operator fatigue by streamlining and automating the process of monitoring, categorising, and tracking people and vehicles in different locations, ultimately saving businesses a lot of time and money. We are seeing continued improvement and sophistication of these systems, and expect their use will become a lot more common.
Notably, some of the key challenges with increased use of video analytics will be handling inaccurate results, especially when used in the security and policing sectors, machine bias, securing the data and protecting it from hackers, as well as privacy concerns such as the inability of data subjects to consent (9, 10).
This increasing desire to roll-out of video analytics will force businesses to be more transparent and open with their employees and customers. We will start to see more engagement by businesses with their teams on sensitive data issues, as they start to put new processes in place to build and maintain trust with their workforces, regulators, and general public around how they capture and use data.
More personal video surveillance
In 2022, we can expect to see further growth in consumers investing in personal video surveillance for their homes. With the pandemic having forced many to stay at home, home security has become more of a priority. Ring, which produces doorbell cameras, is increasingly popular: they are now the largest corporate-owned civilian-installed surveillance network in the US (11). Interestingly, we have also seen some of the first GDPR cases and fines surrounding these cameras, with questions surrounding lawfully processing data and invasion of privacy (12). As a result, we could see more of a legal requirement for individuals to process footage from their personal security cameras in compliance with GDPR.
The growing use of facial recognition
While the privacy and human rights issues surrounding facial recognition remain heavily discussed, we can expect its use to become a lot more ubiquitous - but with concurrent pushes for regulation. Countries like China have already incorporated heavy use of facial recognition technology, and in the West, particularly in smart cities, it is being adopted in different areas; namely, in airports, retail stores, hospitals, and in the workplace, as well as verifying identities online (13). The police in the UK have also been trialling facial recognition AI for “predictive policing” to tackle crime and use these video analytics for intelligence gathering (14).
From a privacy perspective, the public remain sceptical of facial recognition and the normalisation of surveillance. There are concerns about how people’s biometric data is stored and shared, and fears of the technology being misused (15). Many also want its use limited except in certain circumstances where there are safeguards and/or the ability to opt-out (16).
We can expect to see legislators respond to these concerns and create legal frameworks for accountability and to prevent overreach. In the April 2021 proposals for the regulation of AI from the EU, one of the proposals was a ban on the use of biometric identification systems like facial recognition in public (with some exceptions) (17). The US congress, similarly has several proposals in line for regulation of facial recognition (18).
2. Company’s attitudes towards privacy are shifting
Increased risk of cyber threats and compromised data
Last October, it was recorded that the number of data breaches in 2021 exceeded that of 2020 by 17% (19).
One low-cost solution companies will continue to use is cloud computing and encrypted systems to secure and back up their infrastructure as much as possible, particularly as data is transferred across borders.
This January, the Austrian site NetDoktor’s use of Google Analytics was found to breach the GDPR, as data passing through Google servers would end up in the United States; an issue of contention for EU citizens since Schrems II and the dissolution of Privacy Shield (20). This further raised the issue of whether data is stored and whether it is vulnerable to being compromised.
Attitudes towards security methods for securing data are changing, with it no longer being a simple check-box exercise, but important for brand reputation and marketing purposes. Investing more money and effort into securing data privacy, as well as weighing out the benefits of data localisation, will become more commonplace for businesses when trying to keep customer data secure.
Companies waking up to the importance of data privacy
Recent statistics from CISCO have shown that over 50% of consumers would switch to companies they believe have better policies around the handling of data (21).
Consumers are wanting greater trust and transparency from the businesses they engage with, leading to companies changing the way that their internal and external practices deal with and manage personal data.
Privacy is no longer about compliance and more to do with business reputation and trust - and customers and employees are becoming more cognisant of this.
This increased commitment to data privacy will also mean a greater role and greater demand for data protection officers (DPOs). As the consumer data that is collected increases, the more important DPOs will become and we can expect companies to hire more than one person to take responsibility for ensuring they are in compliance (22).
Increased importance of data subject access requests (DSARs)
With video privacy becoming more of a hot button topic and fears of over-surveillance growing, the general public is becoming more educated on these areas. In turn, we can predict more people exercising their rights and requesting access to the information bodies have on them and requesting their data be amended, updated, and deleted. DSARs will also become more common for legal action (23). Hence businesses will also need to get savvier at data mapping and keeping track of what kind of data they collect and where it’s stored in order to fulfil these requirements.
We can also anticipate more demand for streamlined solutions to ensure video privacy, as well as greater demand for redaction software as a way to make compliance easier. The police have recently voiced frustrations at having to spend a large amount of time redacting video footage to comply with data protection legislation, demonstrating the cost of managing privacy and organisations not wanting it to become an onerous task (24).
3. Prepare to see more data protection laws to ensure video privacy
Increased litigation and fines
With laws like GDPR being established for several years now, there will be mounting pressure on Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) to enforce law and sanction organisations found in breach. As a result, we expect to see more court cases and fines handed out over breaches of data privacy laws.
Individuals are also increasingly exercising their data rights and bringing litigation against bodies for violation of privacy, as we saw in the 2021 class-action Lloyd v Google case. January 2022 has already seen China’s largest facial technology firm, SenseTime, being sanctioned by the United States over its role in the monitoring of the Uyghurs (25). With increasing geopolitical tensions and scepticism around China’s tech innovation, in 2022 we can expect to see further scrutiny and sanctions on their products and how they capture video and biometric data.
More pressure on legislators to respond properly to video management
By 2023, 75% of the world’s population will be covered by some sort of data privacy regulation and it remains high on the priority list for lawmakers (26).
Several US states have introduced their own data privacy laws, and there are movements towards federal level protection. It seems likely other countries will begin to feel the pressure and start implementing their own legislation, to enable free transfer with trading countries that already have a data protection regime in place. The continual rise in popularity of processing data for video analytics, along with the rapid growth in AI development and usage, means that legislation across the world will need to keep evolving, whilst still allowing companies to innovate.
References:
https://counterterrorbusiness.com/news/19112020/number-cctv-cameras-uk-reaches-52-million
https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/risk/articles/impact-covid-cybersecurity.html
https://www.england.nhs.uk/2021/06/nhs-roll-out-of-body-cams-in-boost-to-ambulance-crews-safety/
https://www.ifsecglobal.com/video-surveillance/overview-video-analytics-security/
https://benchmarkmagazine.com/intelligent-video-analytics-for-effective-security/
https://www.machinedesign.com/automation-iiot/article/21171867/the-rise-of-ai-video-analytics
https://www.usenix.org/system/files/soups2021-zhang-shikun.pdf
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258241
https://venturebeat.com/2021/12/30/a-look-back-at-recent-ai-trends-and-what-2022-might-hold/
https://fortune.com/2021/10/06/data-breach-2021-2020-total-hacks/
https://www.wired.com/story/google-analytics-europe-austria-privacy-shield/
https://www.mustardit.co.uk/it-blog/the-most-interesting-data-privacy-trends-for-2021-2022/
https://www.itbriefcase.net/top-6-data-privacy-trends-to-look-out-for-in-2022
https://iapp.org/news/a/gartner-predicts-75-of-consumers-will-fall-under-privacy-laws-by-2023/
Images
All images are shutterstock.