Face-blurring Technology in CCTV Systems Could Protect Privacy

These days, it seems that closed circuit televisions are everywhere, designed to boost physical security for companies and the general public. But CCTVs also bring a host of privacy issues, which is why one researcher has proposed a new technology that could help protect privacy.

In an article on the Security Management website, Matthew Harwood says the technology, developed by Hewlett-Packard computer scientist Jack Brassil, is an opt-in facial blurring system dubbed “Cloak.”

Brassil told Harwood that if the system ever comes into being, it would be something like a national “do-not-call” list, which targets unwanted telephone solicitation.

“To opt into Cloak, a person would first need a ‘privacy enabling device” - most conveniently a mobile phone with GPS capability,” Harwood says. “The device would wirelessly beam the user's position, direction, and velocity to a central system server.”

To work, participating CCTV operators, including government agencies and businesses, would have to sign up with Cloak and system software would then electronically obscure participating individuals’ faces.

The idea isn’t without its detractors, though. Ian Brown, a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute in the United Kingdom, told Harwood the cure may be worst than the disease. People who opt-in to Cloak could be tracked everywhere they go, in real time, through the system and their wireless devices.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.securitymanagement.com/news/face-blurring-technology-cctv-systems-could-protect-privacy-researcher-says-005181