Patent attributes
A surveillance monitoring system may use a camera to detect any viewing faces visible within viewing sight of a monitor and determine whether the detected viewing faces belong to authorized individuals who are authorized to view video surveillance footage on the monitor or if any of the detected viewing faces belong to individuals who are not authorized to view video surveillance footage on the monitor. When the detected viewing faces belong only to authorized individuals, the surveillance monitoring system continues to display the video surveillance footage that includes identifiable faces without anonymizing the identifiable faces. When the detected viewing faces also include unauthorized individuals, the surveillance monitoring system may continue to display the video surveillance footage, but the surveillance monitoring system may automatically anonymize one or more of the identifiable faces seen in the video surveillance footage.