VA Deserves a Better Privacy Law And Facial Recognition for Dating ❤️
Whose Streets? Our Streets! (Tech Edition) Issue 13
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
Egypt (Update) - “Orange Business Services is to design and build cloud-based ICT infrastructure for the Egyptian smart city that is set to become the country's new administrative capital.” [Capacity]
Florida, U.S. - “Yes, just like Florida’s Department of Health, this Florida water treatment plant apparently didn’t bother to issue individual passwords for software that could give anyone complete access to any of their computers and their water treatment system.” [The Verge]
India - “India said on Monday local firms will no longer need license or other permission to collect, generate, store and share geospatial data of the country, bringing sweeping changes to its earlier stance that it admitted hindered innovation.” [TechCrunch]
Minneapolis, MN, U.S. - “University of Minnesota researchers worked with the Minnesota Department of Transportation” to test a Street-Crossing app for the blind “by placing beacons on traffic control boxes at six intersections in the city of Stillwater.” [Government Technology]
New York, NY, U.S. - “In January, when New York’s Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act went into effect, the City of New York Police Department was suddenly forced to detail the tools it had long kept from public view. But instead of giving New Yorkers transparency, the NYPD gave error-filled, boilerplate statements that hide almost everything of value. Almost none of the policies list specific vendors, surveillance tool models, or information-sharing practice.” [WIRED]
Oakland, CA, U.S. (Update) - The Oakland, CA Police Department (OPD) will present a report later this year to the city's privacy commission regarding its contract with surveillance tech firm ShotSpotter. The city is one of a few jurisdictions in the country that conducts annual reviews of surveillance technologies.” [Smart Cities Dive]
Russia (Update) - "‘Face control’: Russian police go digital against protesters” [Reuters]
Srinagar, India - “The Srinagar Smart City Limited (SSCL) Sunday convened a marathon meeting of heads of concerned government departments to discuss the projects approved under the Smart City project in Srinagar and to discuss and deliberate over new project proposals submitted to it by different departments and agencies for approval.” [Cross Town News]
United Arab Emirates - “The UAE has approved a facial recognition technology and is set to trial it as part of efforts to further develop the services provided by private and government sectors.” [GD Online]
Various U.S. Cities - “Cities are rushing to replace their legacy street lights with ‘smart’ LED fixtures that could one day be able to find you a parking space, monitor air quality, and announce an oncoming thunderstorm.” [Axios]
Market Watch
Acquisitions & Financing
Biometrics
“Clear, a New York City-based biometrics startup, raised $100 million. Investors included Enlightened Hospitality Investments, The Partnership Fund for New York City, and 32 Equity.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
Mobility
“Atlantic Coastal Acquisition, a SPAC focused on the mobility sector, filed to raise up to $300 million. Shahraab Ahmad, founder of Decca Capital, is CEO and chairman of the SPAC. Read more.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
“BusUp, a San Francisco-based bus management software maker, raised $6 million in Series A funding.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
“Urban SDK, a company that offers traffic and transportation data software to state and local government, has raised $1.7 million in a seed funding round.” [Government Technology]
Other
“RapidSOS, a New York-based emergency response services platform, raised $85 million in Series C funding. ” [Fortune Term Sheet]
“SecuriThings, a Tel Aviv-based IoT cybersecurity company, raised $14 million in Series A funding.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
“Tyler Technologies to Buy NIC in $2.3B Market-Shaking Deal. The acquisition, probably the biggest gov tech deal ever, would bring together a giant of local government software with a giant of state software.” [Government Technology]
“WireWheel, an Arlington, Va.-based data privacy company, raised $20 million in Series B funding.” [Fortune Term Sheet]
Patents/New Tech
Biometrics
“A Clearview AI patent describes facial recognition for dating, and identifying drug users and homeless people.” [Buzzfeed, see also Gizmodo].
“Alexa can now greet people from your Ring Doorbell Pro.” [The Verge]
Mobility
“Spin is introducing remote-operated scooters in Boise, Idaho, an indication of the kinds of tech upgrades the devices are acquiring as they re-emerge in cities following the COVID-19-induced slowdown.” [Government Technology]
Other
“This week, Palantir and IBM announced a partnership that will help businesses supercharge their data impact with easily deployable AI applications. The new solution combines key modules from Palantir Foundry with IBM’s AI for business capabilities and hybrid cloud data platform.” [Palantir Blog]
Personnel
Other
“Facebook Meets Apple in Clash of the Tech Titans—‘We Need to Inflict Pain’ Animosity between CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook erupts over privacy and dueling visions of internet” [Wall Street Journal]
Purchasing Trends
Biometrics
“Cortsight AI announces expansion into the Oceania region.” [Asia One]
“Dahua, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of video surveillance technology purports to detect the race of individuals caught on camera” and “offers to alert police” when it identifies Uighurs. [LA Times]
“Facial Recognition Technology Market is slated to grow rapidly in the coming years (2020-2028).” [NeighborWebSJ]
Mobility
“Smart Transportation Market is projected to surpass USD 130 billion by 2024.” [Business News Update]
Other
“The global parking management market was valued at US$ 37.6 Bn in 2017 and is expected to reach US$ 58.5 billion by 2027 and estimated to witness a moderate CAGR growth rate of 4.8% from 2019 to 2027.” [The Courier]
Policy Watch
Florida, U.S. - “A bill unanimously passed by the Florida Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee aims to expand the use of drones by law enforcement and government agencies, spurring concern among privacy and civil rights advocates.” [Government Technology]
Minneapolis, MN, U.S. (Update) - “City council votes to ban facial recognition technology.” [Kare11, see also The Verge]
North Dakota, U.S. - “Last month, a lobbyist approached Kyle Davison, a North Dakota state senator, with an unusual proposal: a law to stop Apple and Google from forcing companies in the state to hand over a share of their app sales.” [NY Times]
Oklahoma, U.S. - “The Oklahoma Computer Data Privacy Act” passed this week and ‘requires internet technology companies to obtain explicit permission to collect and sell personal data.’” [The Lawton Constitution]
U.S. Federal - “Fighting AI bias needs to be a key part of Biden’s civil rights agenda.” [Fast Company]
Various Global Cities - EFF’s new report, “Privacy Without Monopoly: Data Protection and Interoperability” examines how “problems of corporate concentration and privacy on the Internet are inextricably linked.” [EFF]
Various U.S. Cities (Update) - “The FAA's new drone tracking regulations represent a major step in expanding the prevalence of drones in American life.” [ACLU]
Various U.S. Cities (Update) - “Several developments have occurred in the past year regarding BIPA litigation, including federal courts addressing the parameters of subject matter jurisdiction over BIPA claims, the statute of limitations issues, insurance coverage decisions and the applicability of preemption as a defense.” [National Law Review]
Various U.S. Cities - “CDT’s Next Big Focus: the Equity in Civic Technology Project.” [Center for Democracy and Technology]
Various U.S. Cities - “At the end of January, Congress received an expansive set of tech-related oversight recommendations aimed at protecting the civil and human rights of American citizens and immigrants.” A “list of recommendations was put together by several advocacy groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.” [Government Technology]
Virginia, U.S. (Update) - “A very weak consumer data privacy bill is sailing through the Virginia legislature with backing from Microsoft and Amazon, which have both testified in support of the bill.” [EFF]
Watching the Watchers Watch
London, U.K. - “The country’s biggest police force made only one arrest after scanning more than 13,000 people with facial recognition technology.” [The Times]
Louisiana, U.S. (Update) - “ACLU seeks Louisiana State Police facial recognition records.” [WBRZ]
New York, NY, U.S. - “Note to Reporters: If Surveillance Data Shouldn’t Exist, Then Don’t Use It.” [One Zero]
Various U.S. Cities - “Despite Scanning [23 Million] Faces, Feds Caught Zero Imposters at Airports Last Year.” [One Zero]
Various Global Cities - “This is how we lost control of our faces. The largest ever study of facial-recognition data shows how much the rise of deep learning has fueled a loss of privacy.” [MIT Technology Review]
Various Global Cities - “Kurant demonstrates this concept in Conversions (2019-2021), a series of ever-morphing ‘paintings’ that uses data from social media feeds belonging to members of different protest movements, including Black Lives Matter, Women's Strike in Poland, and Extinction Rebellion.” [WIRED]
Bonus Section...Interviews to Watch, um, Read
💬 Interview: “The story of surveillance capitalism is older than Google. Even before the internet became a mass medium, private firms were using the computerized collection and processing of data in order to classify and manipulate people. The scholar Oscar H. Gandy, Jr. has been studying this phenomenon from the start—and sounding the alarm about the dangers it represents.” [Logic]
💬 Interview: “To understand the arguments about the dangers of the tech giant’s business model, I spoke and corresponded with Shoshana Zuboff, the author of the landmark book ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.’” [The Markup]