The Importance of Privacy in Audio-Visual Hearing Aids

Poppy Welch from the University of Southampton gave a talk to the COG-MHEAR team about the research she has been carrying out during her PhD, focusing on the privacy considerations needed for audio-visual hearing aids.

Recent developments in audio-visual hearing aids have shown significant potential to transform the way in which the deaf and hard of hearing communities use assistive technologies. Before the devices can be widely adopted however, there are several key privacy issues that need to be considered. This is especially important when we consider that these devices not only affect the wearer, but also the general public.

When capturing both audio and visual data from a first-person perspective, we obtain rich information allowing for the identification of individuals nearby and the capturing of potentially sensitive conversations. This has been shown previously to make some individuals uncomfortable, for example with the backlash that Google Glasses faced when released.

It is therefore extremely important that the capturing and handling of this data is done appropriately. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law that provides guidelines about the way in which this can be done. For example, the regulations state that appropriate technical and organisational measures should be in place to protect the rights of data subjects (this is known as privacy-by-design) and that only the personal data necessary for the specific processing purpose is used (privacy-by-default). If a standard video camera is being used to film images of people talking, privacy could be preserved by blurring the faces of speakers not involved actively in conversation or of those a certain distance away from the hearing aid wearer. The intention for the hearing assistive technology that is being developed on the COG-MHEAR research programme, is to ensure that video captures only an outline of a talker’s mouth, and that this data is not stored. Knowledge of these privacy preservation methods would ideally help build trust in the use of cameras with hearing aids, as people feel their privacy is being protected, and also could help protect the data from any malicious attacks.

Another way in which privacy could be increased for hearing aids is by using “edge devices”. This means that as opposed to being connected to the cloud, the data processing is done locally on a chip within the device. Edge-based solutions offer increased security as the data is not transmitted off-device, and so there is a reduced risk of data interception and loss.

Ultimately, we hope that using methods such as these will allow for trust in the devices to develop from both the perspective of the wearer and those interacting with them. By making them safe for users and society, and ensuring people understand how their privacy is being protected, we can avoid any social barriers to uptake and the devices can be widely adopted.