CCTV redaction is a process used to protect the privacy and identity of individuals captured on video surveillance. It involves the removal or blurring of sensitive information such as faces, license plates, and other personally identifiable details.
What is the purpose of CCTV Redaction?
CCTV Redaction techniques are commonly employed in situations where the footage is intended for public release or legal proceedings or when a person makes a subject access request.
To fulfill the legal obligations of a subject access request (SAR), you need to protect the personal information, identify and other distinguishing features of anyone else who is visable in CCTV footage other than the person making the subject access request.
By complying with the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, implementing CCTV redaction, organisations can ensure compliance with these privacy regulations while still maintaining the integrity of their video evidence.
SAR, DSAR… what’s the difference?
A SAR, also called a data subject access request (DSAR), is any request by a data subject for access to their personal data. Both terms are often used interchangeably.
The CCTV redaction process plays a crucial role in balancing the need for security and privacy in today’s surveillance-driven world.
We provide CCTV redaction service for Subject Access Requests (SAR)
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) grants individuals the right to request access to their personal data held by organisations. This includes data captured by Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems. The process to exercise this right is by submitting a Subject Access Request (SAR) to the organisation responsible for the CCTV footage.
The SAR should be made in writing and include specific details such as the date, time, and location of the incident you are requesting footage for. The organisation has one calendar month, starting from the day they receive the request to provide a copy of the footage, unless there are legitimate reasons for a delay.
It is important to note that the organisation may redact or withhold certain information if it falls under any exemptions outlined in the GDPR.
If the request for CCTV footage is complex or you make more than one, the response time may be a maximum of three calendar months, starting from the day of receipt.
Outsourcing your CCTV Redaction to Advanced Overwatch
Outsourcing CCTV redaction to Advanced Overwatch has become a popular choice for many businesses and organisations. By entrusting this task to external professionals, companies can ensure that sensitive information captured on surveillance footage is properly protected. Outsourcing CCTV redaction to us offers several advantages, including increased efficiency, cost savings, and enhanced data security. With the growing importance of privacy and data protection, businesses are recognising the value of outsourcing this critical task.
By partnering with our experienced redaction team, companies can focus on their core operations while ensuring compliance with privacy regulations.
Overall, outsourcing CCTV redaction to Advanced Overwatch is a smart and strategic move for many businesses looking to safeguard sensitive information effectively.
What CCTV Redaction Services do Advanced Overwatch offer?
We offer a fully outsourced CCTV Redaction service. Importantly, the Redaction process is carried out by experienced, real people, at our secure CCTV Control Rooms in the UK.
Our solution is not A.I. driven or software reliant like some of the alternatives you will have seen online. More often than not automatic CCTV Redaction is poor, particularly when dealing with important and complex footage (more than one individual). If a single frame of footage contains the personal information of another individual then it is not compliant.
In short, Advanced Overwatch professionally redact your CCTV video for you.
Here’s how our simple CCTV Redaction process works:
- We assist our clients with the paperwork process (including CCTV Data Processing Agreement).
- You upload the file to our secure, GDPR compliant portal.
- We blur the areas that you need, for example faces, license plates, personally identifiable markings, body tattoos and house numbers etc.
- Audio, if used, can also be redacted or removed entirely.
- You then get access to preview the footage.
- Our clients can use our portal, which is branded to your business or organisation, to share the footage with your data subject which is password protected and removed automatically after a period of time you select.
Who is our CCTV Redaction Service suitable for?
We provide our service to businesses and organisations of all sizes, such as small shops and schools, solicitors, to blue chip companies, to public authorities and police services across the UK.
For example, we carry out CCTV Redaction for our customers including:
- NHS
- McDonald’s
- Police Service of Northern Ireland
- Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council
- Community Rescue Service
- Mid Ulster District Council
- Town and City Centre locations including Coleraine, Portrush, Portstewart
- Woodard Academies Trust
Further information regarding our ICO / UK GDPR / DPA 2018 Compliant CCTV Redaction Services is below:
CCTV Redaction Vetting and certification
All staff are Enhanced Vetting cleared to BS:7858:2019. We offer a highly personalised, confidential and professional service with a fast turnaround.
We hold ISO 9001 / 27001, for quality and data security. We also have quite a number of specific industry certifications (CIPP/E, CIPM, IPSA, CTSP, MSyL, SSAIB and so on). All operators working on Redaction are SIA licensed.
CCTV Video and Audio Redaction process
Redaction is performed on non-network, siloed computers, we do not carry out any cloud processing. The redaction is performed in one of our two Control Rooms – both locations are staffed 24 hours per day.
The output we provide is suitable for submission to Data Subjects making a SAR, Solicitor firms, Police or court proceedings and we work with public and private sector customers across the UK. Our services are used daily by Police, local authorities and private sector customers.
CCTV Redaction Processing
All processing is done by our team, in-house with no third-party processing. We do not use automated A.I. processing which has a high failure rate. We make the process for our clients very straightforward.
Footage is delivered via a secure and encrypted download link (UK hosted) and is often used by our clients to provide footage to Data Subjects as a downloadable and auditable record of delivery with password and expiry enabled – we can host this for you to complete your SAR.
How much does CCTV Redaction cost?
Every CCTV video clip is different. Complexity, duration, number of individuals to be redacted and so on. We review your requirements with you which is 100% free of charge and provide a quotation.
If you have a SAR/DSAR to comply with and require CCTV footage to be blurred/redacted, contact the industry professionals on +44(0)2870878077 or email: info@advancedoverwatch.com and a specialist will speak with you about your individual CCTV Redaction needs.