In today’s digital age, connected cloud-based services have become part of the everyday fabric of society. Such is their integration, that we often don’t realise we’re using an AI-enabled device or service - services that send and receive information from data centres thousands of miles away in the blink of an eye.
The world of security and surveillance is also undergoing this process of digital transformation. On their way out are the legacy stand-alone CCTV systems useful only for basic level security and after-the-fact forensic documentation of an event. In their place are the robust, connected systems with built in analytics and audio capabilities, which currently cover transport hubs, warehouses, banks, retail environments and myriad other services and settings.
The general public is now very used to the presence of surveillance in their lives, together with related services that document their whereabouts, such as GPS tracking. In equal measure, news headlines that highlight concerns about the ways in which facial recognition technologies are being used1 are commonplace. There is then a tension between surveillance’s proliferation and the completeness of the debate about the ethics of digital observations.
Cloud potential for improved security
As our general mastery of cloud services and the internet of things (IoT) matures, the cloud offers enormous potential. In the security sector, cloud services make traditional security features more cost-effective and available to all. The nature of the cloud means that today, security vendors can offer modern features such as video analysis and object tracking as-a-service, giving customers the option to pay as they go and avoid large up-front capital investments in onsite technology.
