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Privacy intrusion: hold all the cards with edge computing

24 May 2022 | by Marc-Elian Bégin

edge cloud privacy security

In poker rooms around the world, players keep their cards close. It’s the only way to avoid prying eyes. There’s an important lesson here for organisations collecting data, video and audio — these inputs are your cards and absolutely no one else should see them.

The wealth of information from your sensors, cameras, microphones, actuators and other new digital sources should yield valuable insights without intrusion.

Privacy intrusion is a hot topic

When talking with customers, partners and prospects, I’m surprised by how frequently the topic of privacy intrusion comes up, and this is usually part of a broader conversation around the importance of data sovereignty. In Europe, these discussions typically reference the data privacy and security law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), while in the Americas and further afield, other reference points are used to understand and interpret the laws around digital privacy.

What can you see?

As the cost of easy-to-deploy digital source equipment is going down, technical capabilities are going up, so you can understand, see and hear much more from your input streams than ever before. For example, today’s latest video cameras deliver extremely high levels of definition. This is great for generating precise insights on, say, product quality or behavioural analysis – information that’s very valuable to your organisation and to others.

Why keep this information close?

No-one else should be able to see your information, or that of your customers. There are onerous standards and regulations around the operation and management of surveillance equipment, including closed-circuit television (CCTV). These requirements represent such a burden with which most organisations are unwilling or unable to comply. But without adequate protection of the information you gather, there is a very real and growing risk of someone snooping on you.

How to avoid prying eyes?

A key promise of edge computing is that instead of sending your data, video and audio to the cloud to be processed, you keep it close. All of your input streams are processed locally, near the digital device that generates them. Here’s what you gain:

Want to see more from us?

At SixSq, we have a wealth of experience in privacy protection. So contact us today to discuss new ways of stacking the cards in your favour.

This post was first published on the EdgeIR website.


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