Body Worn Video (BWV)

Body Worn Video (BWV) involves the use of cameras that are worn by a person, and are often attached onto the front of clothing or a uniform. These devices are capable of recording both visual and audio information. Due to BWV’s increasing affordability, many different organisations in the public and private sectors can purchase and use such equipment.

BWV has the ability to capture footage and audio in close proximity to individuals, and can also be used to record in new or novel ways. This type of surveillance therefore has the potential to be more intrusive than conventional CCTV systems. Scenarios could include face-to-face on doorsteps, on public transport or inside buildings such as homes and shops. This versatility therefore increases the risk of privacy intrusion to individuals.

Before you decide to procure and deploy such a system, it is very important that you justify its use and consider whether it is necessary, proportionate and addresses a particular need. If you are going to use audio recording as well as visual recording, the collection of audio and video needs to be justifiable. The use of BWV therefore requires you to undertake a DPIA.

BWV devices have the ability to be switched on or off, but it is important to know when and when not to record. Continuous recording requires strong justification as it is likely to:

• be excessive; and
• capture others going about their daily business, as well as the individual who is the focus of your attention.

Some BWV devices offer the ability to continuously buffer recording, so if you turn it on it may also have recorded the previous few seconds. It is important that you ensure any buffered recording is not excessive, and you only record the amount of footage you intend to.

Remember that the presence of audio recording adds to the privacy intrusion. You will require further justification if you are thinking about recording in more sensitive areas, such as private dwellings, schools and care homes. In such circumstances, the need will have to be far greater in order for the use of BWV systems to be proportionate. The operator will need to provide more evidence to support its use in these situations.

If you want to use both video and audio recording, the most privacy-friendly approach is to purchase a system where you can control and turn them on and off independently. You should consider these two types of data processing as separate data streams. Therefore you should consider controlling them separately to ensure that you do not process irrelevant or excessive data. It is important that you identify a BWV system which has the ability to be controlled in this way at the procurement stage.

If your BWV system cannot record audio and video separately, you should only use it when you can justify the recording of audio and video together in the circumstances.

Providing privacy information

If you use BWV systems, you should be able to provide sufficient privacy information to individuals. As BWV cameras can be quite small or discreet, and could be recording in fast moving situations, individuals may not be aware that they are in fact being recorded.

You should think of ways to provide further information to individuals in order to make them aware of recording. For example, you should:

• inform or verbally announce to individuals that the recording of video or audio or both is about to take place, and the reasons why, prior to turning on the BWV device;
• place visible signage or a warning light on the device or uniform, to indicate that the device is switched on and recording; or
• if more appropriate in the circumstances, direct individuals to the privacy notice on your website, if you have one.

Security and governance

Due to the versatility of the technology and the specific circumstances where they can be used, BWV cameras can also process special category data that could be more sensitive. Processing special category data can increase the risks to individuals. This means you are more likely to need to do a DPIA for the processing. Due to the nature of this data, it is important that you have appropriately assessed the level of risk involved and implemented robust technical and organisational measures, including physical security, to mitigate them. Read further guidance about special category data.

For example, you should consider the use of encryption, whether this involves the device itself or the storage medium. (Where this is not appropriate, you should have other ways of preventing unauthorised access to information.) In addition, you should consider designs that have robust technical security measures, for example BWV that do not have removable memory cards, to further reduce the risk of loss or compromise of data if a device is stolen or misplaced.

The governance of the information that you collect is particularly important, as BWV cameras can process information in isolation, or as part of a larger workflow. You therefore need to make appropriate decisions about the retention and disposal of information, alongside retrieval of information and staff training. For example, staff training can be tailored for individuals who use the cameras. This could include knowing when to record, processing recorded information safely and securely, and responding to queries and requests from the general public.

You need to ensure that you can securely store all of the data you capture and have appropriate policies in place for the storage. The policy must set out:

• how long you should keep the information for (this should be the shortest time necessary for your purpose); and
• when you no longer require it, when to appropriately dispose of it

You should store the information so that you can easily identify, locate and retrieve recordings relating to a specific individual or event. You should also store it in a way that remains under your control, retains the quality of the original recording and is adequate for the purpose you originally collected it for.

If you will be regularly sharing recorded information with a third party, then we advise you to have a data sharing agreement in place. For further guidance, see our data sharing code.

You also need to consider any steps you must take when individuals exercise their rights, particularly when doing so could affect the rights of others. For example, responding to a subject access request for footage that involves individuals other than the one making the request. This may require you to apply video and audio redaction techniques in some circumstances. Some techniques may include blurring, masking, or using a solid fill to completely obscure parts of the footage. For further information see the dedicated sections in this guidance on redaction and responding to subject access requests.