Privacy
What Vira keeps, and what it never does.
This page says plainly what Vira collects, what it throws away, and who decides. It is written for privacy officers, and for anyone else who wants to know. We work through your hospital’s privacy and security review with you.
Commitments
Four things that do not change.
- No video is recorded.Vira looks at the live picture and lets it go straight away.
- Registry matches go to a person.Registry screening finds possible matches from the ID, never by searching faces. Optionally, staff also see whether the visitor’s photo looks like the registry photo; a person decides.
- The watchlist is yours.Cameras only recognise people your hospital has added to its watchlist. They don’t look for anyone else. For each person on it, Vira keeps a faceprint, not a photo, until your hospital removes them.
- A person decides every match.Every possible match goes to your staff to review. Vira never turns anyone away on its own, and every decision is kept on record.
What Vira keeps from a check-in
- Name
- Kept
- Date of birth
- Kept
- Expiry date
- Kept
- License number
- Scrambled, can’t be read back
- Everything else on the barcode
- Not kept
- Check-in photoPrinted on the badge
- Not saved
- ID photo checkWhen the kiosk compares the license photo with the check-in photo, only the result is kept
- Photos not saved
- Registry photo of a possible matchOptional. Only if your hospital turns on the registry photo comparison
- Compared, then dropped. Not kept
- Temporary faceprintOptional. Only if your hospital turns on recognising visitors during their visit
- Deleted at check-out, or when the badge expires
For each person on your hospital’s watchlist
- FaceprintA set of numbers made from a photo, not the photo itself
- Kept until your hospital removes them
- Photo
- Not saved
From a possible match on a camera
- Camera, time and what staff decided
- Kept
- Picture or video
- Not kept
Where video goes
Looked at, then let go.
Outside your hospital
No equipment to install for the cameras
The video is sent over an encrypted connection, checked, then thrown away. It is never saved.
Questions privacy officers ask
Short answers.
Does Vira record video?
No. Vira looks at the live picture and lets it go straight away. There is no recorded footage.
Does the registry check use face recognition?
Not to search. Possible matches come from name and date of birth. If your hospital turns it on, the visitor’s photo is compared one to one with each possible match’s official photo to help staff tell a real match from someone who only shares a name and birth date. The result is shown in words, such as “faces look alike” or “faces look different”, as a hint; a person decides. Nothing about the registrant’s face is kept. This is off unless your hospital turns it on after its own privacy review.
Does Vira keep face data?
Faceprints only. Vira doesn’t save photos. A faceprint is a set of numbers made from a photo, not the photo itself. For each person your hospital adds to its watchlist, Vira keeps a faceprint until your hospital removes them. If your hospital turns on the registry photo comparison, the registry photo of a possible match is compared, then dropped. It is not kept; only the outcome is kept on record.
Are faceprints made for ordinary visitors?
Only if your hospital turns that on. The kiosk can recognise a visitor again while they are in the building. If it is used, a temporary faceprint is made at check-in and deleted at check-out, or when the badge expires if the visitor leaves without checking out.
Does the kiosk compare the visitor with their license photo?
It can. When the kiosk compares the license photo with the photo taken at check-in, only the result is kept. Neither photo is saved.
Is an image kept when a camera finds a possible match?
No. Vira keeps the camera, the time and what staff decided. No picture and no video.
Who decides who is on the watchlist?
Your hospital. The watchlist holds people your hospital has added, such as people under a trespass order or former employees who are barred. Cameras don’t look for anyone else.
Can Vira turn someone away?
No. Every possible match goes to your staff to review. What happens next follows your hospital’s own rules.
What is kept from a driver’s license?
Name, date of birth and expiry date. The license number is scrambled so it can’t be read back. Nothing else from the license is kept.
What happens to the check-in photo?
It is printed on the badge and not saved. Vira doesn’t save photos.
Is there a record of decisions?
Yes. Every possible match and every staff decision is kept on record.
This website
No analytics, no trackers and no cookies.
The public pages send nothing you type to us. The questions on the Book a demo page only fill in an email in your own email app, and you choose whether to send it. If you email us, we use your message to reply to you.
The one exception is the private pilot questionnaire, which a hospital reaches only through its own link. Its answers and photos are sent to Vira’s survey system and used only to plan the pilot. Your browser remembers the name and role you type there, so you don’t have to enter them again.
Walk the plan with us.
We’ll walk you through check-in, the registry check and match review, using made-up example data, and answer your security, IT and privacy questions.