Enterprises Must Establish Clear Security Protocols for Wearables as Privacy Concerns Grow

The enterprise wearable camera market continues to see growth through law enforcement, field services, and first responder applications due to their ability to collect evidence and record interactions. ABI Research forecasts enterprise wearable camera shipments will reach nearly 24 million in 2022. Yet as growth fuels, so do privacy and data protection concerns.

“Despite clear advantages to the usage of this technology, enterprises fear attacks from cybercriminals and data theft,” says Stephanie Lawrence, Research Analyst at ABI Research. “With massive data leaks often reaching mainstream news, public concern is rising over the security of wearable camera recordings, including who has access to such footage and for how long.”

Data collected from wearable cameras can often include recordings of innocent bystanders, potential witnesses, and even victims. If not protected, this data in the wrong hands can be used to threaten those caught on camera, one of the main public concerns. ABI Research finds that it is important that strong security protocols be put in place by enterprise wearable camera vendors and adhered to by device users to ensure that all data is kept secure and risk of loss is minimized.

Enterprise wearable camera vendors, such as Axon, Reveal, and Zepcam offer supporting platforms that will aid enterprises in securing the data that is collected from wearable cameras. These platforms feature strong authentication, password, and data encryption mechanisms, which ensure that only authorized personnel have access to the data. The platforms also log who accesses the data and when.

Some platforms, like those by Edesix and VIEVU, can also help to redact certain details, such as automatically blurring out the faces and possessions of innocent bystanders. Often the devices feature built-in storage, rather than storing the recordings on SD cards, which ensure that the data cannot be forcibly removed or deleted before being uploaded to the platforms.

The findings are from ABI Research’s Enterprise Wearable Cameras: Devices, Use Cases, and Supplier Ecosystem Analysis report.