Designed with a focus on ease of use, this new feature allows operators to temporarily disable image capture and recording for the entire system or individual cameras – quickly, in a controlled manner, and without having to switch off individual components separately. Until now, completely interrupting video surveillance often required various system components to be specifically disabled. In the future, a single command will be sufficient. Authorised users can activate Privacy Mode directly via the Semsy Compact client software.

As soon as Privacy Mode is activated, the affected cameras immediately stop capturing images. At the same time, recording is stopped and the video output is replaced by a static Privacy Mode image. This means that no personal image data is captured or recorded while Privacy Mode is active, eliminating unnecessary use of recording capacity.

For operators, this makes it significantly easier to implement internal data privacy policies and comply with legal requirements.

Ready for immediate use again

While Privacy Mode is active, the system components remain active and fully operational, eliminating the need to shut down and subsequently restart the system. Once Privacy Mode is deactivated, video surveillance becomes available again within a very short time and can return to regular operation with virtually no delay.

This offers significant advantages particularly for critical infrastructure, airports, stadiums, and public facilities. Operators can respond flexibly to different situations without compromising the rapid availability of their security system.

Visible data privacy creates transparency

A special feature of Privacy Mode, which is also protected by a utility model, is the externally visible indication of its status directly on the cameras. Depending on the model, this can be achieved, for example, by lowering the Privacy Shield of a Panomera camera, flashing a privacy indicator, or moving Domera cameras to a defined privacy position.

This allows employees, visitors, or event attendees to immediately see that no images are currently being captured. It enhances transparency for affected individuals and helps build additional trust.

Protection against misuse

Privacy Mode can only be activated by authorised users. In addition, the feature can be protected by appropriate authorisation concepts and security mechanisms, such as a dual-login procedure. This ensures that operators retain full control over the use of the data privacy feature at all times.

Data privacy requirements

Privacy Mode helps operators more easily meet the requirements of the GDPR as well as principles defined by data protection authorities, such as data minimization, recording limitation, and transparency. Requirements for privacy-compliant video surveillance continue to increase. The new Privacy Mode provides operators with a practical and convenient solution for meeting these requirements.