Portland Ditches Replica, LAPD Used Ring to Surveil BLM, And Vein Recognition
Whose Streets? Our Streets! (Tech Edition) Issue 14
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
Amsterdam, Netherlands - “Security and Safety Things GmbH is pleased to announce its partnership with the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam to deploy its IoT platform for smart surveillance cameras” [Parking Net]
Chattanooga, TN, U.S. - “Chattanooga Built Its Own Broadband Network.” [Techdirt]
Delhi, India (Update) - “Delhi Police Commissioner S.N. Shrivastava said that a total of 94 persons were identified using facial recognition technology and arrested in north-east riot cases.” [The Hindu]
Gurugram, India (Update) - “First facial recognition cameras at 2 busy spots, project could cover entire Gurugram.” [Times of India]
Inland Empire, California - “A City With Amazon at the Center” [NY Times]
Litchfield Park, AZ, U.S. - “Litchfield Park to install 32 license plate readers to maintain 'safe lifestyle'“ [AZ Family]
Los Angeles, CA, U.S. - “LAPD Sought Ring Home Security Video Related to Black Lives Matter Protests.” [The Intercept, see also EFF, Mashable, and The Verge]
Paris, France - “French watchdog warns sports club about unlawful use of facial recognition technology” [Reuters]
Pennsylvania, U.S. - “Transit providers in Berks and Lancaster counties have upgraded fare payment and other technology to better enable contactless transactions” [Government Technology]
Portland, OR, U.S. - “Portland Ditches Google’s Smart City Tech Sibling Replica. A city tech project in Portland with the Sidewalk Labs spin-off leads to accusations, data disputes and ‘damaged trust.’” [Redtail Media]
Seoul, South Korea (Update) - “Planned city of Sejong evolving into model for smart-city tech” [Nikkei Asia]
South Wales, U.K. - Two positive FRT stories from South Wales this week, is it a campaign, or is no one else posting positive stories?
Sweden - “Sweden’s data watchdog has found that Swedish police failed to conduct the data protection checks required by law before using controversial facial-recognition tool” [Computer Weekly]
Various Global Cities - “Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong argued that ASEAN can ‘use the ASEAN Smart Cities Network to exchange ideas and experiences on using technology to fight COVID-19. For example, technology to enhance contact tracing’” [Business Inquirer]
Various Global Cities - “Esra Ozkan and Sanne Stevens, Table Co-Directors in LSE’s Justice, Equity and Technology Project, take a deep dive into the use of data-driven tools in policing across Europe” [LSE]
Various Global Cities - “Israeli surveillance companies are currently developing drones equipped with facial recognition capabilities, leading American law enforcement to consider adding the controversial tech to their fleet as well.” [Oodaloop, see also Market Watch]
Various U.S. Cities - “Biometric body temperature scanners being adopted from main street to DHS.” [Biometric Update]
Various U.S. Cities - “Three Mayors on Their (Very Real) Challenge to Silicon Valley’s Dominance” [One Zero]
Market Watch
Acquisitions & Financing
Biometrics
“Strata Identity raises $11 million to unify identity management in a multi-cloud world.” [Venture Pulse]
Mobility
“LA-based Metropolis raises $41 million to upgrade parking infrastructure.“ [Venture Pulse]
Video
“Edgybees, a Gaithersburg, Md.-based provider of geo-tagging and visual augmentation of aerial videos, raised $9.5 million in Series A funding.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
Other
“BlackSky Holdings, a Herndon, Va.-based provider of geospatial intelligence and global monitoring services, agreed to go public via merger with Osprey Technology Acquisition, a SPAC.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
“Eseye, a U.K.-based IoT connectivity company, raised £$26.3 million ($21 million) from TELUS Ventures.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
“Opiniion, a Lindon, Ut.-based maker of software for resident relations and reputation management, raised $3 million in funding.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
Legal
Mobility
“[UK’s] highest court ruled that the 25 [Uber] drivers who filed a lawsuit should be considered workers and entitled to minimum wage and vacations” [WIRED]
Other
“Facebook Blocks News in Australia, Diverging With Google on Proposed Law.” [NY Times, see also Washington Post, WIRED, The Verge]
Patents/New Tech
Biometrics
“An Israeli biometrics startup with a history of defense contracts has applied for a patent on technology that repositions drones to get a better shot of a person on the ground.” [Fast Company]
“Forget fingerprints -- AI may soon use your veins to identify you” [Buffalo News | KITV4]
“The Shoddy Science Behind Emotional Recognition Tech. People’s facial expressions line up with their emotions less than half the time” [One Zero]
Mobility
“Google Maps will now let you pay for public transportation and parking through its app” [The Verge]
Other
“Inside the ‘Wikipedia of Maps,’ Tensions Grow Over Corporate Influence. As Apple, Facebook, Amazon and other private companies play larger roles in OpenStreetMap, some volunteers worry that the open-source project is losing its way.” [Bloomberg City Lab]
“White House now says 100 companies hit by SolarWinds hack, but more may be impacted” [The Verge]
Purchasing Trends
Video
“In its bid for TikTok, Oracle was supposed to prevent data from being passed to Chinese police. Instead, it’s been marketing its own software for their surveillance work.” [The Intercept]
Other
“LPWA Connectivity to Remain Dominant Across Smart City Segments, with 5G Representing Less Than 2% of All Cellular Connections in 2026” [Yahoo! Finance]
“Why you’ll be hearing a lot less about ‘smart cities’. Growing backlash against big technology companies, combined with the pandemic, has led to diminishing enthusiasm for a term that once dominated the conversation around the future of cities.” [City Monitor]
Policy Watch
Australia - “Twitter deems Australia's account takeover warrant as antithetical to democratic law…Twitter's remarks were made as part of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) review into the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020, which, if passed, would hand three new warrants for dealing with online crime to the two law enforcement bodies.” [ZD Net]
California - “Instacart, Uber, Lyft, Postmates, and DoorDash totally conned you into paying for Prop 22” [The Verge]
France - “Why France’s New Tech ‘Repairability Index’ Is a Big Deal” [WIRED]
Illinois, U.S. - “Illinois residents have reached a settlement in principle to resolve their claims that photo-sharing service Shutterfly stored their biometric data from its facial-recognition technology without their consent, they told a federal court Thursday.” [Law360]
Minneapolis, MN, U.S. (Update) - “Minneapolis bans facial recognition to the dismay of city police.” [Smart Cities Dive, see also Techdirt and MN Daily]
Minneapolis, MN, U.S. - “Police in Minneapolis reportedly used a geofence warrant at Floyd protest last year” [The Verge, via JTDL]
New York, NY, U.S. (Update) - “Companies should take steps now to minimize risk in a rapidly evolving legal landscape governing the use of biometric technology, which is sure to see many significant changes over the course of 2021.” [Chief Executive]
North Dakota, U.S. (Update) - “North Dakota's New Anti-230 Bill Would Let Nazis Sue You For Reporting Their Content To Twitter” [Techdirt]
U.S. Federal (Update) - “FTC’s First Settlement on Facial Recognition Technology Yields Lessons” [Bloomberg Law]
U.S. Federal - “Treasury Watchdog Warns of Government’s Use of Cellphone Data Without Warrants. Intelligence and law-enforcement agencies may be on shaky legal ground in purchasing the data, report says.” [Wall Street Journal h/t @ProfFerguson]
Utah, U.S. (Update) - “Lawmakers introduce bill to strike balance between personal rights, public safety with facial recognition technology.’ [St George News]
Various EU Cities - “In only a few months the European Commission is set to present a regulation on artificial intelligence (AI). Despite numerous statements from civil society and other actors about the dangers of applying a risk-based approach to regulating AI, the European Commission seems determined to go in this direction.” [Access Now]
Various U.S. Cities - “Civil rights groups ask Biden administration to oppose facial recognition. The groups argue the software ‘would facilitate the mass tracking of each person’s movements in public space — something intolerable in a free and open society.’” [Washington Post, see also The Hill, Bloomberg Law]
Various U.S. Cities - “The State House Versus Big Tech. State and local governments are looking to assert more control over tech companies. [NY Times]
Various U.S. Cities - “Border agents can search phones freely under new circuit court ruling” [The Verge via JTDL]
Virginia, U.S. (Update) - “Virginia Data Protection Proposal Will Land on Governor’s Desk... Other states have introduced similar bills. Last year, the Minnesota Legislature took up the Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act. Similar legislation was introduced in Michigan, Connecticut and New York. While most proposals would have consumers opt-out to having their personal data sold, a proposed law in Oklahoma includes an ‘opt-in’ feature, according to a blog about the Virginia bill and the current landscape of consumer data protection action, by the Future of Privacy Forum.” [Government Technology, see also EFF urging the legislature to hit pause on SB 1392 until it can be amended to offer real protections.]
Worcester, MA, U.S. (Update) - “Worcester’s City Manager signed an executive order Friday afternoon and submitted a series of recommendations for City Council approval that include…banning facial recognition” [MassLive]
Watching the Watchers Watch
Various Global Cities - “The (il)logic of legibility: why governments should stop simplifying complex systems” [The Centre for Public Impact]
Various Global Cities - “On today's encore episode, Short Wave host Maddie Sofia and reporter Emily Kwong speak with AI policy analyst Mutale Nkonde about algorithmic bias — how facial recognition software can discriminate and reflect the biases of society.” [NPR]
Various U.S. Cities (Update) - “I guess it all depends on what your definition of ‘effective’ is. The CBP's expansive definition suggests literally any number above zero justifies the cost of the tech and its attendant surveillance creep.“ [Techdirt]
Various U.S. Cities - “The Department of Justice has, after more than three years, finally begun to respond to EPIC's request for cell phone surveillance orders issued by federal prosecutors.” [EPIC]
Bonus Section...ReadMEs to Watch, um Read
🖥️ ReadMEs: “Black voices bring much needed context to our data-driven society. Black communities are working together to democratize data and make the field more inclusive.” [GitHub’s The ReadME Project]