Data protection & privacy

How SaveVision handles emergency data

This page explains, in plain language, what data SaveVision touches, how it is protected, and the roles and rights involved. We wrote it to be the document your data-protection team actually wants to read.

Status: SaveVision is an early prototype. The controls below describe how the system is designed and built; any real deployment must complete its own Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), clinical and legal review before processing real patient data.

1. What data is involved

  • Live video & audio from the bystander's glasses or phone — the clinician's working picture during a call.
  • Location of the scene (GPS / approximate position) to place the case on a map and route help.
  • Case information a clinician records — assessment, guidance sent, timestamps, operator actions.
  • Account data for operators (username, hashed password, session) — never the bystander.

Special-category (health) data is inherently involved. It is treated as the most sensitive class of data throughout.

2. How it is protected

  • End-to-end encryption. Live video and guidance run over the Matrix protocol (Olm/Megolm). The server relays ciphertext it cannot read.
  • Self-hosting. The whole system runs on infrastructure you control, in your jurisdiction. Casualty data does not have to leave your organisation or your country.
  • Encryption in transit. All connections use TLS/HTTPS.
  • Data minimisation. Only what is clinically necessary is stored, and history is capped. No third-party advertising, analytics, or tracking is present.
  • Access control & audit. Operator actions require authentication; state-changing actions are recorded in a tamper-evident audit log.
  • Human-in-the-loop. Nothing is sent to the person on the scene without an explicit clinician decision.

3. Roles under the GDPR

Because SaveVision is self-hosted, the deploying organisation (e.g. an emergency service, a Red Cross society, or a volunteer organisation) is the data controller for the data it processes. SaveVision's makers act as a software provider / processor only to the extent agreed in a Data Processing Agreement for a given pilot.

RoleWhoResponsibility
ControllerYour organisationPurpose & lawful basis, consent, retention, data-subject rights.
Processor / providerSaveVisionSecure software, support, no use of your data beyond the agreement.

4. Lawful basis & consent

In a life-threatening emergency, processing is typically grounded in vital interests and the provision of healthcare (GDPR Art. 6(1)(d)/(c) and Art. 9(2)(c)/(h)), within the controller's own policies. Where practical — for example in training, events, or non-urgent follow-up — explicit informed consent is obtained. The final lawful basis is determined by the controller and its DPIA.

5. Sub-processors

A SaveVision deployment can run with no third-party data processors at all. Two optional integrations, only if you enable them:

  • AI guidance (optional). If an AI key is configured, a single point-of-view frame is sent to the vision provider only when the clinician asks for a suggestion, and the suggestion is reviewed before use. Disable it and no frames leave your server.
  • Map tiles (optional). Map imagery is fetched from a tile provider; this can be self-hosted for fully offline operation.

6. Retention

Retention periods are set by the controller. By default the prototype keeps only recent case state and a bounded event/audit history; live media is not recorded by the system unless the controller explicitly enables and justifies recording.

7. Your rights

Data subjects have the rights granted by the GDPR — access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection — exercised through the controlling organisation. Because data is held on the controller's own infrastructure, these requests are fulfilled directly by them.

8. Contact

Questions about SaveVision's data-protection design, or to arrange a DPIA workshop for a pilot: hello@savevision.io. (Add your organisation's Data Protection Officer contact here for a live deployment.)