User-Centric Protection and Privacy in Smart Surveillance Systems

Abstract

During the last decades surveillance systems developed from analog one camera one monitor systems to highly complex distributed systems with heterogeneous sensors that can handle surveillance tasks autonomously. With raising power and complexity, ensuring privacy became a key challenge. An event-driven SOA architecture that follows the privacy by design principle is a promising approach to realize a smart surveillance system and is described in this work. Enforcement of privacy is not only complex for engineers and system designers; rather it is not understandable for the average user, who cannot even assess potentials and limitations of smart surveillance systems. This work presents an approach for privacy that is focused on the user, i.e., the observed subject. By using a mobile device the user can interact with the surveillance system and is not passive anymore, as in conventional surveillance deployments. This restores the balance between the observed and the observers, enhances transparency and will raise the acceptance of surveillance technology. In the highlighted approach the user can control his individual-related data and privacy preferences and can use services that are benecial for him.

Privacy-Aware Object Representation for Surveillance Systems

“…The legal status in the US is also different [20]. Even if data protection law is existent, it is not ensured that it is enforced properly, e.g., it is estimated that 80% of existing CCTV installations in the UK are not [21].…”

Analyzing the Security and Privacy of Cloud-based Video Surveillance Systems

“…In 2009, Vagts and Beyerer state several challenges, for example data privacy, and conclude, that "the issues must be addressed right from the beginning" [7]. He emphasizes "security by design" and "privacy by design".…”

Assessing the Security and Privacy of Baby Monitor Apps

“…This concern holds especially true for video surveillance systems due to the privacy implications of recording live videos. The combination of digitalization and rising technologies in video monitoring solutions poses a serious threat to personal privacy, as current technology has the potential for total surveillance [1]. Thus, exploring the usage and protection of private data, especially in closed-source proprietary surveillance systems, represents a focal point of privacy research.…”