Clearview AI illegal in Canada, NV Tech Co Cities, And VA Privacy Law Advancing
Whose Streets? Our Streets! (Tech Edition) Issue 12
Whose Streets? Our Streets! (Tech Edition) documents trends in the surveillance of public space. Curated by Rebecca Williams and Madeleine Smith as part of "smart city" surveillance research for the Technology and Public Purpose Project at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center. Subscribe now so you don’t miss an issue and help us spread the word to folks who would enjoy this content.
City Watch
Baltimore, MD, U.S. (Update) - City officials “unanimously voted to end the city police department’s spy plane surveillance program.” [The Verge, see also Baltimore Sun, VICE]
Detroit, MI, U.S. (Update) - “Delta expands biometric check-in for domestic travelers at Detroit Airport.” [Future Travel Experience]
Greece - “Law enforcement officers will receive new devices allowing them to carry out facial recognition and fingerprint identification in real-time.” [OODA]
India (Update) - “In India, the black market for people’s personal data is booming, putting Indians’ privacy at risk. Yet the government is persisting in pushing a standalone law on ‘non-personal’ data instead of prioritising a meaningful personal data protection regime that would keep Indians safe.” [Access Now]
Lucknow, India (Update) - “As facial recognition technology gains a foothold in the country, activists are questioning the police’s surveillance plans.” [The Washington Informer]
Miami, FL, U.S. - “Miami mayor says Elon Musk will tunnel under the city for just $30M” [The Verge]
Minneapolis, MN, U.S. - “Police in Minneapolis reportedly used a geofence warrant at Floyd protest last year” that “ordered Google to provide account data on people.” [The Verge]
Oakland, CA, U.S. - “Oakland's Privacy Advisory Commission has unanimously passed a motion recommending that the City Council immediately terminate their police department's use of Automated License Plate Readers and prohibit the department from seeking approval for two years.” [@EFF]
Patterson, New Jersey, U.S. (Update) - “Algorithms failed Parks twice: First, he was mistakenly identified as the suspect; then, he was robbed of due process and jailed for 10 days at the recommendation of a risk assessment tool used to assist pretrial release decisions.” [Teen Vogue]
Russia (Update) - “As the protests are sweeping across Russia, the government of Russia is going to be using the facial recognition technology against the protestors.” [IGN24, see also Yahoo, Coindesk]
Salt Lake City, UT, U.S. - “With the goal of creating a ‘digital society,’ Mayor announces ‘city’s first innovation department, along with a new digital equity infrastructure.’” [Government Technology]
San Francisco, U.S. - SF Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in favor of “requiring all special business districts - such as the Union Square Business Improvement District- to bring any new surveillance plans to the Board before adopting new technologies.” [EFF]
Various Cities, U.S. - “Speakers at the recent Micromobility World conference debated the future of smart city tech and whether it’s actually been improving urban mobility, or simply facilitating a growth of the surveillance state.” [Government Technology]
Market Watch
Acquisitions & Financing
Biometrics
“The video management specialist Network Optix will be integrating CyberLink’s FaceMe facial recognition algorithm into its entire portfolio of Nx Video Surveillance-as-a-Service (VSaaS) products, including its flagship Nx Witness VMS solution. The technology will enable face-based access control, and allow Nx Witness users to create watchlists of banned individuals.” [Find Biometrics]
Mobility
“Automotus, a Los Angeles-based maker of a video analytics platform that monitors curbside traffic, raised $1.2 million. Investors included Quake Capital, Techstars Ventures, Kevin Uhlenhaker (co-founder & CEO at NuPark, acquired by Passport), and Baron Davis.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
Video
“DroneDeploy raises $50 million to collect and analyze visual data with drones and robots.” [Venture Pulse]
“Metalenz, a Boston-based maker of optic sensing tech, raised $10 million. Investors include 3M Ventures, Applied Ventures, Intel Capital, M Ventures, TDK Ventures, Tsingyuan Ventures, and Braemar Energy Ventures.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
Personnel
Incoming Amazon CEO Andy Jassy “has a deeply concerning track record on everything from antitrust to killer robots.” [VICE] Including facial recognition technology. [@alfredwkng]
Patents/New Tech
Biometrics
“China is home to a growing market for dubious ‘emotion recognition’ technology. A new report says the tools rely on junk science and have the potential to erode human rights around the world.” [Rest of World]
“Google Pixel phones will soon track heart rate using only the camera.” [Ars Technica]
“How to make a fitbit for an elephant: accelerators can tell whether animals are swimming, walking, running or sprinting up hills.” [WIRED]
“Microsoft Researcher Daniel McDuff and [Jonah Berger] conducted a study that used automated facial recognition technology to analyze how people reacted to different kinds of ads.” [Harvard Business Review]
Mobility/Location
“3G could end this year. For people who rely on basic phones, that’s a big problem.” [OneZero]
“Chief Innovation Officers discuss 5G and Wi-Fi 6 at panel hosted by Cisco” [Government Technology]
“Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Donald Trump, Wilbur Ross, is backing a blank check company that is seeking to raise some $300 million. While Ross will be CEO, former Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow will serve as director. Dubbed Ross Acquisition II, the special purpose acquisition company is seeking to acquire a company that does most of its business in North America, Europe, or Asia. While the SPAC is open to investing in all sectors [it cited some areas of interest including] Transportation: Data analytics, digital trade and alternative fuels.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
“Google is weighing an anti-tracking feature for Android, following Apple’s lead.” [The Verge]
“Hip, a New York and Tel Aviv-based mobility startup, raised $12 million in funding. NFX and Magenta Venture Partners and were joined by investors including AltaIR Capital.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
Video
Monitoreal is using AI to “improve situational awareness and provide highly accurate advanced object detection analytics, reducing false alerts and delivering real time notifications.” [Security Informed]
Other
“AWS unveils new GovTech Accelerator” [Government Technology]
“Boston Dynamics’ robot dog gets an arm attachment, and can now open doors and turn valves.” [Ars Technica]
Public-Private Partnerships
Video
Purchasing Trends
Biometrics
“9 scary revelations from 40 years of facial recognition research.” [Mashable]
“Facial Recognition System Market Segmentation, Application, Industry Overview and Innovative Technology 2021-2027” [KSU Sentinel]
(Update) “Hikvision to deploy 1,900 cameras with face biometrics for $33M smart city contract.” [Biometric Update]
“Soft market conditions hit biometrics revenues, but fundraising deals foreshadow expected bounce.” [Biometric Update]
Policy Watch
Alabama, U.S. - “Bill filed to limit use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement as the sole basis to establish probable cause of arrest.” [Alabama Political Reporter]
Canada (Update) - “Clearview AI’s Facial Recognition App Called Illegal in Canada. Canadian authorities declared that the company needed citizens’ consent to use their biometric information, and told the firm to delete facial images from its database.” [NY Times, see also Wall Street Journal on global regulation of Clearview AI and Security Boulevard’s podcast on the inner workings of Clearview AI]
China - “Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi calls DOD ruling that bans US citizens from holding Xiaomi stock or other investments unconstitutional.” [Ars Technica]
Nevada, U.S. - “Planned legislation to establish new business areas in Nevada would allow technology companies to effectively form separate local governments...Sisolak named Blockchains, LLC as a company that had committed to developing a “smart city” in an area east of Reno after the legislation has passed.” [AP | Review Journal]
U.K. - “British Security Industry Association’s video surveillance section put out a guide that strictly talks about the ethical and legal use of Automated Facial Recognition.” [Analytics Insight]
Utah, U.S. (Update) - Utah bill to tighten grip on facial recognition use. “The proposal out of the Senate is the latest in a string of efforts to limit the use of the technology in Utah. Allegation of misuse first surfaced in 2019, kicking off a long-running conversation about guardrails.” [Government Technology]
Various Global Cities - “EFF’s State of Communications Privacy Laws report, a set of questions and answers about privacy and data protection in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, and Spain” dropped two posts last week:
Various U.S. Cities - “Public streets and roads are as deeply intertwined with our First Amendment rights as the idea of protest itself.” [ACLU]
Various U.S. Cities - “A new report lays out local surveillance oversight ordinances. [Berkeley Law via JTDL]
Various U.S. Cities - “The incoming [Biden] administration will have to navigate gaps in privacy protections across states. California currently leads on privacy, but Washington should catch up.” [East Bay Express]
Various U.S. Cities - “A taxonomy of police technology’s racial inequity problems. [Illinois Law Review]
Virginia, U.S. - “Senate Bill 1392 unanimously passed its first and second readings by the Virginia Senate with 39-0 votes on Feb. 3 and 4. Those votes follow an 89-9 vote on Jan. 29 from the House of Delegates to approve SB1392's companion bill, House Bill 2307.” Today (2/8/2021) The House continued the bill to a Special Session 1 in Communications, Technology and Innovation by voice vote. [IAPP]
Washington, U.S. (Update) - “With the backing of big technology companies like Amazon and Microsoft, the Washington Privacy Act could mean new rights for the consumer.” [Government Technology]
Watching the Watchers Watch
Fort Lauderdale, FL, U.S. - An interesting example of Ring being used by criminals. “FBI slayings show risk surveillance cameras pose to police. Criminals are using home surveillance cameras to monitor [police] movements.” [ABC]
Various Global Cities - “Exposing.ai Can Tell You If Your Flickr Pic Was Used to Train Biometric AI”. [Find Biometrics]
Washington D.C., U.S. (Update) - Normal people deployed facial recognition on Capitol Hill protesters using a Polish website called Pimeyes. [VICE]
Bonus Section...Design Justice Network Principles to Watch, um, to Read
⚖️ Design Justice Network Principles [New Public]:
We use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems.
We center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process.
We prioritize design’s impact on the community over the intentions of the designer.
We view change as emergent from an accountable, accessible, and collaborative process, rather than as a point at the end of a process.* (This principle was inspired by and adapted from Allied Media.)
We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert.
We believe that everyone is an expert based on their own lived experience, and that we all have unique and brilliant contributions to bring to a design process.
We share design knowledge and tools with our communities.
We work towards sustainable, community-led and -controlled outcomes.
We work towards non-exploitative solutions that reconnect us to the earth and to each other.
Before seeking new design solutions, we look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, indigenous, and local knowledge and practices.