System and practice for surveillance privacy-protection certification and registration

Abstract

There is provided an apparatus for the certification of privacy compliance. The apparatus includes a registry of at least one of enrolled video surveillance operators, approved surveillance hardware devices, approved surveillance software programs, approved surveillance system installers, and approved entities that manage surveillance systems. The apparatus further includes a registry searcher, in signal communication with the registry, for receiving queries to the registry, and for determining whether at least one of a particular surveillance operator, a particular surveillance hardware device, a particular surveillance software program, a particular surveillance system installer, and a particular entity that manages a particular surveillance system is on the registry based on a given query.

1 . An apparatus for the certification of privacy compliance, comprising: 
 a registry of at least one of enrolled video surveillance operators, approved surveillance hardware devices, approved surveillance software programs, approved surveillance system installers, and approved entities that manage surveillance systems; and    a registry searcher, in signal communication with the registry, for receiving queries to the registry, and for determining whether at least one of a particular surveillance operator, a particular surveillance hardware device, a particular surveillance software program, a particular surveillance system installer, and a particular entity that manages a particular surveillance system is on the registry based on a given query.    
   
   
       2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the registry of enrolled video surveillance operators also includes a list of at least one of hardware, software, installers, and management entities used by the operator.  
   
   
       3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the registry searcher searches the registry for a given item of interest based on publicly displayed identification codes included in the queries.  
   
   
       4 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the enrolled video surveillance operators are pre-committed to comply with at least one code of privacy preserving practice.  
   
   
       5 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the registry further includes information regarding compliance with the at least one code of privacy preserving practice as verified by a designated compliance verifying entity.  
   
   
       6 . A privacy protection verification system, comprising: 
 a compliance device for receiving at least one test stream from a privacy protection system, evaluating the at least one test stream with respect to at least one category of privacy intrusive data corresponding to a privacy protection goal, and outputting a measure of compliance of the at least one test stream with respect to the privacy protection goal; and    a memory device for storing the privacy intrusive data.    
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein said compliance device is further for receiving an alternative compliance data from an alternate source and using the alternative compliance data as a baseline for comparison against the at least one test stream during an evaluation of the at least one test stream.  
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein said compliance device performs face detection on the at least one test stream.  
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein said compliance device performs biometric identification on the at least one test stream.  
   
   
       10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the biometric identification is based on at least one of race, gender, age, face, ear, iris, and gate.  
   
   
       11 . The system of  claim 6 , further comprising a database of biometric data, in signal communication with said compliance device, for use in identifying candidates found in the at least one test stream.  
   
   
       12 . A method for the certification of privacy compliance, comprising the steps of: 
 maintaining a registry of at least one of enrolled video surveillance operators, approved surveillance hardware devices, approved software programs, approved surveillance system installers, and approved entities that manage surveillance systems; and    providing access to the registry via queries directed to the registry to determine if at least one of a particular surveillance operator, a particular surveillance hardware device, a particular surveillance software program, a particular surveillance system installer, and a particular entity that manages a particular surveillance system is on the registry.    
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the registry of enrolled video surveillance operators also includes a list of at least one of hardware, software, installers, and management entities used by the operator.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein said step of providing access to the registry utilizes publicly displayed identification codes to search the registry for a given code of interest.  
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the enrolled video surveillance operators are pre-committed to comply with at least one code of privacy preserving practice.  
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the registry further includes information regarding compliance with the at least one code of privacy preserving practice as verified by a designated compliance verifying entity.  
   
   
       17 . A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for the certification of privacy compliance as recited in  claim 12 .  
   
   
       18 . A method for privacy protection verification, comprising the steps of: 
 receiving at least one test stream from a privacy protection system;    evaluating the at least one test stream with respect to at least one category of privacy intrusive data corresponding to a privacy protection goal; and    outputting a measure of compliance of the at least one test stream with respect to the privacy protection goal.    
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising the steps of: 
 receiving an alternative compliance data from an alternate source; and    using the alternative compliance data as a baseline for comparison against the at least one test stream during an evaluation of the at least one test stream.    
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein said evaluating step comprises the step of performing face detection on the at least one test stream.  
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein said evaluating step comprises the step of performing biometric identification on the at least one stream.  
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the biometric identification is based on at least one of race, gender, age, face, ear, iris, gate, and anthropometric measurements.  
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising the step of storing a database of biometric data for use in identifying candidates found in the at least one test stream.  
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein said evaluating step is performed by a human following objective instructions.  
   
   
       25 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the at least one test stream corresponds to one of a surveillance device and a surveillance system, and said evaluating step further comprises the step of performing a random check on a fraction of surveillance operations and modes of operation corresponding to the one of the surveillance device and the surveillance system.  
   
   
       26 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the at least one test stream corresponds to one of a surveillance device and a surveillance system, and the method further comprises the step of providing a capability for at least one of an owner of the one of the surveillance device and the surveillance system, a compliance verifying entity, and a subject of the one of the surveillance device and the surveillance system to perform a separate evaluation of the one of the surveillance device and the surveillance system.  
   
   
       27 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the separate evaluation involves verifying that a software function under evaluation matches a pre-approved software function.  
   
   
       28 . A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for privacy protection verification as recited in  claim 18 .  
   
   
       29 . A method for privacy protection verification, comprising the steps of: 
 reviewing a surveillance product that is associated with a pre-specified level of claimed privacy protection; and    certifying whether the surveillance product meets the pre-specified level of claimed privacy protection.    
   
   
       30 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein said reviewing and certifying steps are performed by a single entity.  
   
   
       31 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein the surveillance product includes at least one of a design of the surveillance product, hardware corresponding to the surveillance product, software corresponding to the surveillance product, and any combination thereof.  
   
   
       32 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein said certifying step provides a public certification of the surveillance product.  
   
   
       33 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein said reviewing step is at least one of automated and manually performed.  
   
   
       34 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein said reviewing step comprises the step of statistical spot checking the surveillance product by a human.  
   
   
       35 . A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for privacy protection verification as recited in  claim 29.