SHERIDAN, WYOMING - March 31, 2026 - 6G planning in 2026 is shifting from pure performance targets to risk-managed design, as network, sensing and AI functions increasingly have to be evaluated together for security, privacy, trustworthiness and sustainability. ETSI has published ETSI GR ISC 004, a report from its Industry Specification Group on Integrated Sensing and Communications that examines how future 6G systems using ISAC will need safeguards for sensing data, human privacy, signal integrity and environmental performance.
Integrated Sensing and Communications allows 6G systems to communicate while also sensing their surroundings, which expands the operational value of wireless infrastructure but also broadens the attack surface and compliance burden. ETSI frames this as a mix of technical, ethical and regulatory challenges, especially where sensing can occur without clear visibility to affected people or organizations, and where AI-based data processing becomes part of the overall system behavior.
Key findings from ETSI GR ISC 004
The report identifies 19 key issues in total. ETSI separates these into 15 issues related to security and privacy and 4 focused on sustainability, signaling that future 6G ISAC deployments will be judged not only on capability but also on how responsibly they are implemented. That balance matters because ISAC links radio communications with environmental sensing, creating additional exposure around what is collected, how it is interpreted and who can access it.
ETSI highlights several specific risk areas: protection against unauthorized use of 6G systems for sensing, safeguards against target-based eavesdropping, and defenses against over-the-air signal manipulation. The report also points to secure transport, storage and immutability of sensing data, which suggests that sensing outputs will need controls similar to other sensitive operational data streams rather than being treated as secondary telemetry.
Where the report focuses operational and compliance attention
Human privacy is a central theme in the document. ETSI includes consent, transparency and privacy-preserving mechanisms for sensing humans, including both connected and non-connected people. That distinction matters because 6G sensing functions may affect individuals who are not direct users of a service or device, widening the compliance perimeter for operators, vendors and enterprise deployers.
The report also addresses confidentiality in non-public and sensitive spaces, adding a location-specific dimension to future network governance. On sustainability, ETSI calls out power consumption, spectrum efficiency, environmental footprint and health considerations. By combining these topics in one report, ETSI positions ISAC as a design problem where resilience, privacy and resource efficiency have to be engineered together rather than managed as separate workstreams after deployment.
Business impact
Procurement leads and telecom architecture teams now have a clearer basis for 2026 vendor selection and technical evaluation. ISAC-related roadmaps can no longer focus only on throughput, latency or sensing performance; they must also test whether suppliers can address unauthorized sensing, data immutability, secure transport and privacy-preserving mechanisms for human sensing. Enterprises and operators considering early 6G-aligned investments can use the ETSI issue set as a requirements checklist when comparing platforms, radio components and data-handling approaches.
Compliance officers and operations directors face a parallel shift in governance. The report makes it harder to treat sensing data as an ordinary network byproduct, particularly in non-public or sensitive spaces where confidentiality expectations are higher. In 2026, that changes budget and policy priorities: privacy controls, transparency mechanisms, AI-processing oversight and sustainability metrics need to be built into program planning earlier. Sustainability teams and network engineering leaders also gain a practical signal that power consumption, spectrum efficiency and environmental footprint will influence technology roadmaps for ISAC-enabled 6G systems alongside security and privacy requirements.