Sophia Antipolis, France, 2 March 2026
The ETSI Industry Specification Group on Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) has published ETSI GR ISC 004, a comprehensive report addressing security, privacy, trustworthiness, and sustainability considerations for Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) in future 6G systems.
The report identifies 19 key issues, including 15 related to security and privacy and 4 focused on sustainability, reflecting the growing importance of responsible design in next-generation networks. As ISAC enables 6G systems to simultaneously communicate and sense their environment, new technical, ethical, and regulatory challenges emerge—particularly around unauthorised sensing, data confidentiality, human privacy, AI-based data processing, and secure handling of sensing data.
The ETSI Report addresses the following main topics:
- Protection against unauthorised use of 6G systems for sensing
- Safeguards against target-based eavesdropping and over-the-air signal manipulation
- Secure transport, storage, and immutability of sensing data
- Consent, transparency, and privacy-preserving mechanisms for sensing humans (connected and non-connected)
- Confidentiality in non-public and sensitive spaces
- Sustainability challenges including power consumption, spectrum efficiency, environmental footprint, and health considerations
- The report consolidates potential technical and non-technical requirements that future 6G systems should meet to ensure ISAC services are secure, privacy-preserving, trustworthy, and environmentally sustainable.
By providing a structured analysis of threats, regulatory considerations, and performance metrics, ETSI GR ISC 004 establishes an important foundation for embedding trust, resilience, and sustainability into the design of future 6G ISAC-enabled systems.
