Toilet Paper Surveillance And 2020's Top 10 Surveillance Sagas
Whose Streets? Our Streets! (Tech Edition) Issue 6
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.
Top 10 Surveillance Sagas of 2020
…in Cities
1. Surveillance in the name of COVID-19. Throughout 2020 governments around the world deployed new surveillance technologies in an attempt to contain the COVID-19 virus. Read about those trends in the EFF’s COVID-19 and Surveillance Tech: Year in Review 2020 and become an expert in the various contract tracing apps with MIT Technology Review’s Covid Tracing Tracker.
2. Filming Protestors. In June, the San Diego Police Department obtained footage of Black Lives Matter protesters from smart streetlight cameras that were billed as a tool for traffic control and air quality monitoring. After media coverage, and ongoing advocacy from the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology San Diego (TRUSTSD) coalition, the City Council set aside the funding for the streetlights until a surveillance technology ordinance was considered and the Mayor ordered the 3,000+ streetlight cameras off (though they remained on due to power, the city did not have access to data collected). In November, the City Council voted unanimously in favor of a surveillance ordinance and to establish a Privacy Advisory Board, but more steps are needed before these proposals become law. (See also Baltimore and San Francisco.)
3. Spy Planes. In March, Baltimore’s Board of Estimates approved a $3.7million dollar Aerial Investigative Research (AIR) program partnered by BPD and Ohio-based company Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS) and supported by Arnold Ventures that would pilot a surveillance plane (which Baltimore had a history of doing). While the ACLU lost an April lawsuit and subsequent appeal seeking to stop a six-month trial of the AIR Program, evidence from a third-party audit by NYU School of Law’s Policing Project found that police made false statements about how mass-surveillance data was being used and filed an amicus brief prompting the Appeals Court to rehear the case. (See also Chula Vista’s AI Drones.)
…in the Market
4. Alibaba’s “Uyghur Recognition As A Service”. Chinese tech giant Alibaba was implicated in reports of China forcing more than 1-million Muslim Uighurs into labor camps. Investigations revealed Alibaba promotional materials included: “Is it Uyghur?” as a query example. Since this was reported Alibaba has removed ethnic tagging from its services. Huawei and Megvii have similarly been investigated for providing these services. (See also Amnesty International’s call to ban facial recognition technology)
5. Sidewalk Labs pulled out of Toronto. After several years of proposals, privacy critique, and data collection speculation and negotiation, Alphabet’s “smart city” subsidiary Sidewalk Labs pulled out of their flagship Toronto Quayside project citing real estate uncertainty due to the global pandemic. Without a pandemic, would this project have continued and where would the data decisions have landed?
6. Scooter Data Wars. LADOT’s use of the Mobility Data Specification, which required “real-time” bike and scooter trip data provoked a lawsuit by ACLU and EFF on privacy grounds and a nationwide debate about government access to private-sector transit data (e.g. from rideshare companies like Uber).
…in Policy
7. U.S. Facial Recognition Technology Laws. 2020 saw more regulations, moratoriums, and bans for facial recognition technology across the U.S., in Boston, Cambridge, Jackson (MS), Los Angeles (despite lying about its use), New Orleans (despite lying about its use), New York schools, New York City businesses, Pittsburgh, Portland (ME), Portland (OR), Springfield (MA), and Washington. (And there are more FRT lobbyists than ever.)
8. Consumer Data Privacy Laws. Consumer Data Privacy bills were considered in at least 30 states and Puerto Rico in 2020 and the California Consumer Privacy Act got an upgrade via California Proposition 24 and had its first not encouraging settlement. (Related: there was new Antitrust investigations or proposals for large data brokers in the U.S., the EU, and China)
9. More Data Protection Regulation & Litigation. With more regulations come more enforcement and litigation. GDPR tracker tracks fines. A $650 million Facebook settlement amongst other cases (like one pending against Clearview AI) brought the IL Biometric Information Privacy Act to national prominence. Even, China and India are currently circulating data protection legislation.
…Watching the Watchers
10. Art So Good It Was Banned. Italian artist Paolo Cirio created a database with 4000 faces of French police officers to crowdsource their identification with facial recognition technology (mimicking ClearviewAI which is used by police globally). The work was set to unveil in France in October but was boarded up and pulled from an exhibition after it was criticized on Twitter by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. The artwork also provoked a bill, backed by President Macron, that would criminalize publishing images of police officers with the intent to harm their “physical or psychological integrity” which provoked massive protests. The bill is now being rewritten. The artwork premiered in Berlin instead.
Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Weekly Update…
City Watch
Dongguan, China - “Mounting concerns over privacy have pushed Chinese authorities to pause the use of facial recognition technology in a public loo.” [South China Morning Post]
Omaha, NE and Tallahassee, FL, U.S. - “Over the past month, two high-profile incidents reaffirmed why police body cameras cannot serve as a police transparency and accountability tool as long as state law empowers the police to determine what footage the public gets to see.” [ACLU]
San Diego, CA, U.S. - “…San Diego was also running a surveillance system downtown that was capable of watching and listening to the public” which is off now. [Patch.com]
Various Global Cities - “Facial recognition deployed in convenience stores in Mexico, England, Singapore (while) New York City tightens retail biometrics rules” [Biometric Update]
Various Global Cities - “IARPA, issued a…solicitation…to improve biometrics at range, the Biometric Recognition and Identification at Altitude and Range, or BRIAR, program.” [Nextgov]
Various U.S. Cities - “Powerful Mobile Phone Surveillance Tool [CellHawk] Operates in Obscurity Across the Country.” [The Intercept]
Woodbridge, NJ, U.S. - “He spent 10 days in jail after facial recognition software led to the arrest of the wrong man, lawsuit says” [NJ.com]
Market Watch
NICE (fintech) now using FRT for risk screening - NICE Actimize...announced that FACEPOINT…has joined the X-Sight Marketplace, bringing its cutting-edge facial recognition technology for advanced KYC and watch list risk screening.” [Finextra]
Policy Watch
Baltimore, MD - The United State Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit announced it is going to rehear the aerial surveillance plane case” [h/t @OrinKerr]
Massachusetts, U.S. - “Police reform legislation headed back to Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk on Wednesday after both chambers agreed to scale back limitations on the use of facial recognition technology.” [Boston Herald, see also an interview, opposition, and support for this scaling back]
New York, U.S. - “A bill signed into law [December 22nd] suspends the use of facial recognition and other biometric technology by New York State schools. The ban will last for two years or until a study by the State Education Department is complete and finds that facial recognition technology is appropriate for use in schools, whichever takes longer.” [EPIC, see also WBFO and Government Technology]
New York City, NY, U.S. - “New York City Council votes to prohibit businesses from using facial recognition without public notice.” (Related: This summer in IL Macy's faced class-action lawsuit for use of facial recognition software Clearview AI under Illinois’ Biometric Privacy Act). [Venture Beat]
U.S. Federal - “...CBP plans to collect the faceprint of virtually every non-U.S. citizen...The faceprints will then be stored in a government database for up to 75 years, where they may be used not only by [DHS], but by foreign governments and federal, state, and local law enforcement to identify individuals for a variety of purposes.” [ACLU, see also opposition by 16 civil rights organization coalition and the City of New York and Portland and other comments]
U.S. Federal - “The Mitre Corp. has published a reference for lawmakers that starts with basic fundamentals.” [Biometric Update]
Watching the Watchers Watch
China - “Alibaba’s website...showed how clients could use its software to detect the faces of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities were discovered by the surveillance industry publication IPVM and shared with The New York Times.” [NY Times]
Bonus Section...A Podcast to Watch, um, Listen to
🔈Podcast: How Urban Tech Increases Corporate Control w/ David Banks [Tech Won’t Save Us]