When Government Surveillance Requires Surveillance Too
Audrey Lei | June 30, 2022
Insight: Government usage of surveillance data requires some form of “technological due process” to mitigate overreach and ensure the fair and ethical usage of its citizens’ information.
In modern times, it is increasingly difficult to navigate through daily life without interacting with some form of technology, whether that’s using your smartphone to make an online purchase or walking through an area with video surveillance. It’s then no surprise that governments around the world are leveraging this ever growing technology network to monitor their citizens’ daily lives; collecting extensive, personal data and utilizing artificial intelligence techniques, all aimed at crafting a profile of an individual’s activities and behaviors. This massive data collection comes at the expense of citizens’ digital privacy and algorithmic fairness and, if abused or done without oversight, can be used for nefarious or illegitimate purposes, as highlighted in the two examples below.
Image 1: Protestors dissenting against online surveillance
One global superpower, China, has become notorious for its expansive, dominating surveillance measures that go beyond the standard of what we’ve come to expect. An article published June 2022 in the New York Times by Qian et. al. estimates that over half of the world’s one billion surveillance cameras are located in China and have the ability to identify an individual’s gender, race and even distinguish the type of clothing they are wearing, such as a mask or glasses. These facial recognition cameras have encroached upon private spaces such as residential buildings, allowing law enforcement to exercise control over citizens’ activities in more intimate settings. More shockingly, however, China’s surveillance measures also include taking retina scans, voice prints and DNA samples from the public such that law enforcement could generate a “personal dossier… for anyone [and] that could be made accessible to officials across the country” [1]. Yet, despite the usage of such highly private data, there exists a lack of transparency surrounding the details of data collection and dissemination, “a lack of record-keeping audit trails, making review of the law and facts supporting a system’s decisions impossible” [3].
Image 2: Citizens on the subway under video surveillance
However, China isn’t the only country implementing these types of surveillance techniques. In the United States, Chula Vista has become one of the most surveilled cities, due in part to its close proximity to the U.S. – Mexico border. According to a KPBS article by investigative reporter Amita Sharma, Chula Vista’s geographical location invites an extra layer of scrutiny from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The surveillance measures — device tracking, facial recognition, license plate readers, among many — are standard, but not the ways in which this surveillance data is being utilized. While citizens may assume that their data is being utilized for their benefit, this may not always be the case; in late 2020 it was reported that “Chula Vista police shared data collected from its license plate readers with immigration officials” contradicting California Senate Bill 54 which prohibits local law enforcement agencies from aiding in immigration enforcement purposes [2]. In this instance, citizens’ data was shared improperly due to a lack of governmental oversight and transparency.
At a minimum, the governmental usage of surveillance data should include some form of “technological due process” [3], such as an independent audit, to ensure that there is a fair system of checks and balances to protect individuals from harm. If governments arbitrarily collect and utilize data with little to no oversight, it could result in situations where data is used corruptly or for nefarious purposes, more likely to hurt its citizens than benefit them. At best, this type of surveillance could help governments detect criminal activity, identify perpetrators and reduce threats to society; but at its worst, this type of surveillance infringes upon the privacy and autonomy of innocent individuals.
________________
Resources:
Citations:
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/world/asia/china-surveillance-investigation.html
[2] https://www.kpbs.org/news/local/2021/12/09/chula-vista-became-most-surveilled-cities-country
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/08/06/is-big-data-spreading-inequality/big-data-should-be-regulated-by-technological-due-process
Images:
[Image 1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/internet-protest-fight-back-surveillance
[Image 2] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/technology/china-surveillance.html