tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/cctv-5326/articlesCCTV – The Conversation2023-03-17T13:15:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1998282023-03-17T13:15:31Z2023-03-17T13:15:31ZThe camera never lies? Our research found CCTV isn’t always dependable when it comes to murder investigations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514486/original/file-20230309-1177-u0roc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3840%2C2149&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"The camera never lies," goes the old adage. But how true is that?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/elevated-security-camera-surveillance-footage-crowd-2198446515">Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a victim or suspect of a crime, or witness to an offence, you may find your actions, behaviour and character scrutinised by the police or a barrister using CCTV footage. You may assume all the relevant footage has been gathered and viewed. You may sit on a jury and be expected to evaluate CCTV footage to help determine whether you find a defendant guilty or innocent. </p>
<p>You may believe you will see all the key images. You may trust the camera never lies. </p>
<p>However, the evidence we gathered during our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/10439463.2021.1879075?needAccess=true&role=button">study</a> of British murder investigations and trials reveals how, like other forms of evidence such as DNA and fingerprints, CCTV footage requires careful interpretation and evaluation and can be misleading. </p>
<p>Instead of providing an absolute “truth”, different meanings can be obtained from the same footage. But understanding the challenges and risks associated with CCTV footage is vital in a fair and transparent system to prevent possible <a href="https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/legal/glossary/miscarriage-of-justice">miscarriages of justice</a>.</p>
<h2>Evidence</h2>
<p>The justice system often relies upon digital <a href="https://www.npcc.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/publications/publications-log/2020/national-digital-forensic-science-strategy.pdf">evidence</a> to support investigations and prosecutions and CCTV is one of the most relied upon forms. Recent <a href="https://clarionuk.com/resources/how-many-cctv-cameras-are-in-london/">estimates</a> suggest there are more than 7.3 million cameras in the UK, which can capture a person up to 70 times per day. </p>
<p>The public may be filmed on council-owned CCTV, by cameras in commercial premises, or at residential premises (home cameras or <a href="https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/smart-video-doorbells/article/genuinely-useful-things-you-can-do-with-a-smart-doorbell-a0JXE2q1niZk">smart doorbells</a>, as well as on public transport and by dash cams.</p>
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<img alt="A man sits at a desk in front of a bank of screens, each showing footage from CCTV cameras." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514644/original/file-20230310-18-zjd7oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514644/original/file-20230310-18-zjd7oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514644/original/file-20230310-18-zjd7oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514644/original/file-20230310-18-zjd7oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514644/original/file-20230310-18-zjd7oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514644/original/file-20230310-18-zjd7oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514644/original/file-20230310-18-zjd7oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">CCTV is one of the most popular forms of digital forensic evidence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/industry-40-modern-factory-security-operator-1936528570">Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In our study of 44 British murder investigations, we showed how CCTV provides many benefits to investigators. It can help identify suspects and witnesses, and implicate or eliminate suspects. It can also help to corroborate or refute accounts provided by suspects and witnesses. However, our findings also indicate how CCTV can be unreliable and problematic.</p>
<h2>Shortcomings</h2>
<p>CCTV is sometimes inaccessible or lost because the detective who is sent to retrieve the footage lacks the skills, training or equipment to recover it in a timely manner. This is especially important since CCTV is often <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-016-0218-2">deleted</a> within three weeks of being recorded. We found that it was often over-written within 7 to 10 days. </p>
<p>At other times, owners are unable to access systems or cannot manage the volume of CCTV requested, for instance, when taking buses out of service for footage to be downloaded. And even when footage is successfully seized, there may not be officers available to view it all. </p>
<p>There is also the risk that important footage which could exonerate a suspect is not <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/about-cps/disclosure#:%7E:text=Disclosure%20is%20providing%20the%20defence,is%20done%20properly%2C%20and%20promptly">disclosed</a> to the defence, which could mean innocent people are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1752928X18301859?via%3Dihub">imprisoned</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lQRfM4Nt6dI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A 2022 Channel 4 News investigation looked at whether CCTV is helping to put innocent people behind bars.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Detectives must frequently make sense of poor-quality images that are blurry or grainy. This is not easy. In some of the investigations we observed, the police tried to enhance poor-quality images, though this was not always successful. </p>
<p>Investigators must also decide whether to draw on <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/expert-evidence">experts</a> to interpret footage and present evidence at court. However, the police have no clear guidance to help determine whether and when to draw on such expertise. We observed cases where officers decided against expert input because they were confident of their own interpretations.</p>
<p>Our study also revealed how some detectives or CCTV officers are used repeatedly to view or interpret footage because they are regarded by others (or assign themselves) as <a href="https://theconversation.com/facial-recognition-research-reveals-new-abilities-of-super-recognisers-128414">“super-recognisers”</a>. These are people who may be better at recognising faces than others. However, there is no <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-super-recognisers-to-the-face-blind-how-tests-reveal-the-underlying-cognitive-processes-176589">robust measure</a> for determining whether someone is a super-recogniser. Furthermore, if super-recognisers are incorrectly viewed as expert witnesses, their evidence could be overvalued during a police investigation or at court.</p>
<p>By the time CCTV footage is shown to a jury, it has been choreographed carefully by the police and prosecution barrister. They are often adept at selecting, organising and editing footage into slick packages. </p>
<p>These techniques are also used by the defence who deliberate over whether to use moving footage or still images, at what speed to show the clips and at what point to add commentary. This is to demonstrate an <a href="https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/elements/article/view/9453">“alternative truth”</a> and provide a contested interpretation of the same footage. It might be difficult for juries to determine how the footage has been edited.</p>
<h2>Gold standard?</h2>
<p>Murder investigations are generally regarded to be the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10439463.2013.771538">gold standard</a> of criminal investigation, due to the investment of time, resources and expertise. Nevertheless, we uncovered many challenges, errors and risks involved in the use of CCTV. These are likely to be even greater in other kinds of criminal investigation, where staffing and knowledge of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1355030621001295">digital evidence</a> may be more limited.</p>
<p>The complexities of CCTV evidence need to be understood by everyone involved in handling, interpreting and presenting footage, as well as by those of us whose actions and accounts may be scrutinised on the basis of CCTV footage. </p>
<p>The challenges and risks identified here are likely to intensify as digital technologies advance - demonstrated by recent concerns with <a href="https://www.bsia.co.uk/zappfiles/bsia-front/public-guides/form_347_automated_facial%20recognition_a_guide_to_ethical_and_legal_use-compressed.pdf">automated facial recognition technologies</a> and the risk of <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-2-billion-images-and-720-000-hours-of-video-are-shared-online-daily-can-you-sort-real-from-fake-148630">deepfake videos</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by The Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by The Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>CCTV is a popular form of digital evidence but it can be unreliable and problematic.Helen Jones, Research Fellow, University of South WalesFiona Brookman, Professor of Criminology, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1991062023-02-04T13:35:05Z2023-02-04T13:35:05ZRobberies surge as criminals take advantage of South Africa’s power outages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507867/original/file-20230202-7334-5x6ocd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The acute energy crisis in South Africa has adversely affected all aspects of the society. Regular and lengthy power outages – which started <a href="https://www.eskom.co.za/heritage/history-in-decades/eskom-2003-2012/#:%7E:text=His%20low%2Dkey%20approach%20came,the%20integrity%20of%20the%20grid">in 2007</a> are also contributing to an escalation in the levels of criminal activity, especially street crime. The most recent <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/services/crimestats.php">quarterly crime statistics</a> – have undermined an <a href="https://mg.co.za/business/2023-01-21-blackouts-add-to-risk-of-recession/">ailing economy</a> and <a href="https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/load-shedding-impacting-food-security-sa/">food security</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/statement-minister-health-impact-loadshedding-provision-healthcare-services-and">health</a> and <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/education-sector-concerned-as-impact-of-load-shedding-cuts-down-valuable-teaching-studying-time-20220920#:%7E:text=%22Load%20shedding%20is%20disruptive%20to,reliant%20on%20technology%2C%20said%20Cembi.">educational</a> outcomes.</p>
<p>It has become evident that power cuts added to a significant increase in all robbery categories – for July to September 2022 – compared to the same period in 2021. This corresponded with the most severe power cuts the country had ever experienced.</p>
<p>In addition, the police service’s <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/services/downloads/Annual-Crime-2021_2022-web.pdf">annual crime data</a> for the period 2012/13-2021/22 shows there was a spike in robberies in 2015. This was a year of <a href="https://mybroadband.co.za/news/energy/470217-scary-load-shedding-statistic-revealed.html">more power cuts</a> (35 days) than previous years.</p>
<p>Based on claims data, <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/626974/increase-in-home-break-ins-during-longer-load-shedding-periods/">insurance companies</a> are suggesting a strong link between power cuts and property crime in wealthier areas. In addition, a growing number of <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2022-07-08-load-shedding-worsens-crimes-in-communities-cpfs/">reports</a> from both rich and poor parts of the country link power cuts to increases in interpersonal crime, particularly <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-06-criminals-are-enjoying-load-shedding-say-cape-town-communities-affected-by-crime/">robberies</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://sandtonchronicle.co.za/317525/stay-alert-with-these-load-shedding-safety-tips/">police</a> and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCASycCNR6M">police minister</a> have publicly linked power cuts to robbery and other crimes in recent months. </p>
<p>So, how are the power cuts contributing to increases in robberies?</p>
<p>It is not possible to provide a definitive answer to this question as no rigorous studies showing causality between power cuts and robbery occurrence in the country have been undertaken. But one can look to crime prevention and policing theory, and studies from other countries, to provide insights into the possible link between power outages and robbery. This theory advocates that power outages (the power utility, Eskom, calls these “loadshedding”) undermine crime prevention measures. This is especially so at night as these measures are largely dependent on street lighting. Power outages also undermine the effectiveness of policing as patrols and other police services are curtailed.</p>
<h2>Electricity and crime</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.saferspaces.org.za/understand/entry/crime-prevention-through-environmental-design-cpted">crime prevention through environmental design theory</a> is helpful.</p>
<p>It uses two principal measures – target hardening; and surveillance and visibility.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/neighbourhood-crime/interventions-situational-crime-prevention">Target hardening</a></strong> uses measures such as locked doors, gates, fencing, alarm systems, CCTV cameras and burglar bars in and around buildings to deter criminals. It is widely accepted in the <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/449230">criminology literature</a> that target hardening has the potential to reduce the risk of home invasions and business robberies in some contexts. These measures should ideally be combined with other crime prevention interventions. </p>
<p>In South Africa, <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/trending/587286/how-criminals-are-taking-advantage-of-increased-load-shedding-in-south-africa/">private security companies</a> have suggested that criminals have taken advantage of the fact that many home and business security systems are compromised during power outages. </p>
<p>Yet, robberies tend to be more prevalent in <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Policing-and-Boundaries-in-a-Violent-Society-A-South-African-Case-Study/Lamb/p/book/9780367748142">poorer urban areas</a> in the country, where residents cannot afford to install such security systems. And most robberies take place in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00038-018-1129-z">public spaces</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africans-are-feeling-more-insecure-do-ramaphosas-plans-add-up-176991">South Africans are feeling more insecure: do Ramaphosa's plans add up?</a>
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<p><strong><a href="https://www.saferspaces.org.za/understand/entry/crime-prevention-through-environmental-design-cpted">Surveillance and visibility</a></strong> assumes that people are likely to be discouraged from robbing others in public spaces, where their actions will be clearly seen by others (“eyes on the street”) and they may be identified and caught by police.</p>
<p>This can include the presence of people in the area, either going about their normal daily activities or actively patrolling, and the presence of CCTV cameras. Lighting in public spaces, especially at night, is nonetheless an essential requirement for visibility and surveillance to be effective. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2004.tb00058.x?casa_token=D1oCV46o9fMAAAAA:Oxla0S7kylB_6vXk0XFOSrp9M-acEsmQKTDZl1NEf9WK2Z5L-Qlp-v7xiYEZ7PCExTOoLT67suQlVzI">Studies</a> from other countries have shown that street lighting and CCTV cameras are effective in reducing robberies. </p>
<p>Power outages, particularly at night, clearly undermine visibility. This is evident from the many <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-06-criminals-are-enjoying-load-shedding-say-cape-town-communities-affected-by-crime/">reports</a> of people being targeted by criminals while walking in the streets after dark.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/power-cuts-in-south-africa-are-playing-havoc-with-the-countrys-water-system-197952">Power cuts in South Africa are playing havoc with the country's water system</a>
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<p><a href="http://wikinight.free.fr/wp-content/uploads/Securite/Securite%20des%20biens%20et%20personnes/Preventing_Crime_what_works_what_doesn_t_what_s_promising.pdf#page=227">Systematic reviews</a> of policing research have shown that regular and visible police patrols, mainly when directed at crime hot spots, are an effective crime prevention intervention. Obviously, police cannot satisfactorily patrol at night during power outages. This makes the work of South Africa’s police more <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2022-09-22-police-have-got-injured-because-of-darkness-bheki-cele-says-about-load-shedding/">dangerous</a>. </p>
<p>In response to a <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-question/98/">parliamentary question</a> about the impact of power outages on the work of the South African Police Service (SAPS), Bheki Cele, the police minister, responded that:</p>
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<p>(It) has an adverse effect on service delivery in the SAPS … on all communication and network operations, including the registering of case dockets … A number of stations cannot function at night because there are no lights … </p>
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<p>There have also been reports of some <a href="https://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/467675-problems-crash-10111-emergency-call-centre-in-major-city.html">police emergency call centres</a> being uncontactable during power outages.</p>
<h2>No easy solutions</h2>
<p>There are no practical short- to medium-term crime prevention alternatives for the authorities to pursue during power outages, other than exempting high crime areas from the outages. That might not be possible in such a severe <a href="https://theconversation.com/power-cuts-in-south-africa-trend-to-get-off-the-grid-is-gathering-pace-but-total-independence-is-still-a-way-off-197924">electricity crisis</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/eskom-ceo-quits-why-finding-a-new-head-for-south-africas-struggling-power-utility-wont-end-the-blackouts-196667">Eskom CEO quits: why finding a new head for South Africa's struggling power utility won't end the blackouts</a>
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<p>One positive development has been <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/weekend-argus/news/delft-residents-take-to-the-streets-as-crime-increases-during-load-shedding-9ed50a9e-36dd-4613-ba87-c93731ce1ae7">increased community patrols</a> in some areas. Regrettably, some of this community crime prevention work has led to acts of <a href="https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/463481/mec-urges-public-to-leave-justice-to-the-law-as-vigilante-attack-leaves-5-dead">vigilantism</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guy Lamb receives funding from Norwegian Research Council, the British Academy and FCDO . He is affiliated with South Africa's National Planning Commission. </span></em></p>Security companies suggest that criminals take advantage of the fact that many home and business security systems get compromised during power outages.Guy Lamb, Criminologist / Senior Lecturer, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1746852022-01-20T13:45:43Z2022-01-20T13:45:43ZShakeAlert earthquake warnings can give people time to protect themselves – but so far, few have actually done so<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441762/original/file-20220120-9372-1yk59g7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=122%2C644%2C3143%2C2029&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An app can give you a few seconds of warning before an earthquake strikes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-nations-first-statewide-earthquake-early-warning-system-news-photo/1176500973?adppopup=true">Yichuan Cao/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>My Facebook feed exploded shortly after noon on Dec. 20, 2021, with news from friends and family in northern California: A “big one!” The 6.2 magnitude earthquake they’d just experienced had its <a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ew1640031020/executive">epicenter on the coast near Petrolia</a>.</p>
<p>Yet many social media posts weren’t focused on the earthquake itself, but rather the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/21/california-earthquake-early-warning-system">alert</a> sent to cellphones seconds before – or, for some, just as – major shaking began.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441349/original/file-20220118-19-ygofp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="screenshot of Facebook post about receiving an alert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441349/original/file-20220118-19-ygofp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441349/original/file-20220118-19-ygofp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441349/original/file-20220118-19-ygofp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441349/original/file-20220118-19-ygofp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441349/original/file-20220118-19-ygofp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441349/original/file-20220118-19-ygofp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441349/original/file-20220118-19-ygofp9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Lots of people justifiably marveled at the alert, but few seem to have taken advantage of it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook screenshot via Dare Baldwin</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/early-warningshakealertr">The ShakeAlert system</a> is a remarkable technology, years in the making. It has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives in areas where high-magnitude earthquakes occur by providing a few seconds’ warning – enough time for people to take basic safety precautions. Marvelous as it is, though, ShakeAlert saves lives only if people understand what to do when they receive such an alert – and do it.</p>
<p>I’m part of an interdisciplinary group that includes <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pS-idGwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">psychologists like me</a> and other social scientists, natural hazards experts, seismologists, geophysicists and communication and education specialists whose goal is to design <a href="https://doi.org/10.1190/geo2021-0222.1">earthquake preparedness and response systems that optimize safe outcomes</a>. Some of us are working together to analyze video footage of various earthquakes posted to social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.</p>
<p>Videos during the Petrolia-centered earthquake are the first we’ve seen of what people do – or don’t do – when they receive a ShakeAlert-powered alert. The footage suggests we have more work to do.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441568/original/file-20220119-21-1e940uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="still of surveillance footage from a hotel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441568/original/file-20220119-21-1e940uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441568/original/file-20220119-21-1e940uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441568/original/file-20220119-21-1e940uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441568/original/file-20220119-21-1e940uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441568/original/file-20220119-21-1e940uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441568/original/file-20220119-21-1e940uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441568/original/file-20220119-21-1e940uy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CCTV footage, like this still from video taken in Jakarta, Indonesia, during the 2004 earthquake, reveals how people really respond during shaking.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-video-grab-from-metro-tv-in-jakarta-shows-a-hotel-cctv-news-photo/51893889">AFP/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Detection and warning of imminent earthquakes</h2>
<p>ShakeAlert depends on a massive network of seismic detectors distributed around the West Coast that pick up initial earthquake shaking.</p>
<p>For people near the epicenter, the time it takes to process the data and send an alert may mean it arrives just as, or possibly even seconds after, major shaking begins. Even this roughly simultaneous notice is valuable, as it helps people realize what is happening, which often isn’t obvious.</p>
<p>For those further away from a quake’s epicenter, an alert may arrive seconds, or even tens of seconds, before strong shaking. That’s enough time to automatically shut down or alter the operations of key systems – for example, to slow or stop trains, control equipment involved in delicate medical procedures, or electrical grids. It’s also enough time to prepare mentally, as well as to take potentially life-saving protective action.</p>
<p>To maximize your chances of <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-should-i-do-during-earthquake">coming out of a major earthquake alive and intact</a>, most experts recommend in most cases – for California, Oregon and Washington – that you “Drop, Cover, and Hold On,” or DCHO for short. The alert message appearing on your cellphone reminds you what to do.</p>
<p>ShakeAlert is the only earthquake early warning system for the public in the U.S. It <a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2021/02/earthquake-warning-system-shakealert-coming-to-oregon-in-march.html">went live in Oregon in March 2021</a>, and in May it expanded to the entire U.S. West Coast. The system sends alerts via <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-do-i-sign-shakealertr-earthquake-early-warning-system">a group of delivery partners</a>. For instance, Google Android phones display alerts via their operating system. Depending where people live, they can install alert apps – MyShake, QuakeAlert USA or San Diego Emergency ShakeReadySD – to their smartphone. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency system that sends emergency messages like Amber Alerts also issues earthquake warnings.</p>
<p>Considerable prior <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101713">research helped to shape the content</a> conveyed in ShakeAlert-powered alerts, as well as key messaging that occurs right after alerts. Getting all of this right is crucial, and it’s still a work in progress.</p>
<h2>What people do before and during quakes</h2>
<p>Until recently, researchers have had to rely primarily on after-the-fact interviews or “<a href="https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/">Did You Feel It?</a>” post-earthquake surveys to learn what people remembered doing during an earthquake.</p>
<p>In the last several years, closed-circuit TV footage has started to reveal how people really respond to high-intensity shaking. These recordings aren’t muddled by individuals’ understandably imperfect memories of a chaotic and stressful event. Though people frequently report having taken protective actions such as “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” during an earthquake, analyses of CCTV footage to date show that DCHO is, as yet, actually quite rare.</p>
<p>There are a few encouraging exceptions, though. For instance, CCTV footage from the 2018 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska, shows a teacher and students in <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2018/12/04/this-classroom-footage-captures-anchorage-students-reacting-perfectly-to-the-earthquake/">one middle-school classroom collectively enacting DCHO</a> immediately and flawlessly.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441528/original/file-20220119-23-3ltaat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="seated person holds up cell phone to show a person who looks shocked" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441528/original/file-20220119-23-3ltaat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441528/original/file-20220119-23-3ltaat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441528/original/file-20220119-23-3ltaat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441528/original/file-20220119-23-3ltaat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441528/original/file-20220119-23-3ltaat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441528/original/file-20220119-23-3ltaat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441528/original/file-20220119-23-3ltaat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A still from CCTV footage just before the Petrolia earthquake seems to depict people astonished by the ShakeAlert warning, but taking no action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screen grab from Earth Quake Video World</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Petrolia earthquake videos offer the first chance to see if ShakeAlert-powered messages change how people behave before, during and even after a major earthquake. So far, in the footage we’ve seen, people noticed the alert yet did nothing relevant to protecting themselves.</p>
<p>In fact, no one in any of these videos from Dec. 20 undertook “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” precautions, regardless of whether, or when, they received an alert. Many people just stayed where they were, showed the alert on their phones to others and excitedly watched as objects swayed and crashed to the floor.</p>
<h2>Frozen in the face of an emergency</h2>
<p>My colleagues and I are hoping that a better understanding of what people actually do during major earth shaking will suggest ways to tweak the alerts so they inspire people to take safer actions. It’s a big challenge because doing nothing when an earthquake begins appears to be very common.</p>
<p>A 2021 survey conducted in both Seattle and Sendai, Japan, found that stopping and staying put was the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102624">dominant response to major earth shaking</a>, even though it puts people at risk of serious injury from falling or being hit by falling objects. There are several likely reasons.</p>
<p>A major earthquake is a novel experience for many people, and often they simply may not know what to do. In addition, there are potential barriers to carrying out “Drop, Cover, and Hold On.” Age, disability and high body mass can make dropping to the floor and getting under cover problematic, though there are <a href="https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S2212420918313888-gr1_lrg.jpg">inclusive ways to DCHO</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Even when people do know what to do in an emergency, evidence suggests they may feel self-conscious or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101150">embarrassed about taking action</a>. Classic social science research points to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(72)90069-8">how contagious it can be</a>, in the face of a variety of emergencies, to do nothing, creating cascading paralysis for everyone present.</p>
<p>By dropping, covering and holding on right when you receive an alert, you might unleash similar protective action in others nearby, possibly saving them, as well as yourself, from injury or death. Seen that way, doing DCHO when you receive an alert – despite the potential for embarrassment – is actually a form of everyday heroism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dare A. Baldwin, Ph.D., is a Full Professor at the University of Oregon; her research at the University of Oregon is supported in part by the United States Geological Survey.</span></em></p>When researchers look at CCTV footage of how people really react during earthquakes – as opposed to what they report after the fact – it looks like alerts aren’t yet inspiring protective action.Dare A. Baldwin, Full Professor, Psychology and Clark Honors College, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1701802021-10-25T15:03:34Z2021-10-25T15:03:34ZSmart doorbells: how to use them without infringing a neighbour’s privacy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428274/original/file-20211025-19-1cnnke9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C7170%2C4791&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-rings-house-intercom-camera-installed-1747420274">RossHelen/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As any local solicitor can tell you, some of the most bitter legal disputes originate from <a href="http://www.problemneighbours.co.uk/neighbourissuescategory.html">disagreements between neighbours</a>. Whether it’s property boundaries, loud music or parking spaces, what might initially be minor irritations can gradually lead to a full-blown court battle.</p>
<p>A relatively recent development in neighbour conflicts are clashes centred on home surveillance products, such as <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-smart-home-security-systems">CCTV cameras</a> and <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-video-doorbells">smart doorbells</a>. These technologies, which may capture footage beyond the householder’s property, can pit householders against neighbours who feel their homes and private lives are being unfairly spied upon.</p>
<p>Indeed, a UK judge <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58911296">recently ruled</a> that a man’s home security system invaded his neighbour’s privacy, and he now faces having to pay potential damages of <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/brits-video-doorbells-installed-incorrectly-21861280">up to £100,000</a>. So what are the privacy implications of this technology, and what do people need to know if they have, or are considering installing, a smart doorbell?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/zaos-deepfake-face-swapping-app-shows-uploading-your-photos-is-riskier-than-ever-122334">Zao's deepfake face-swapping app shows uploading your photos is riskier than ever</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>The use of surveillance technologies is governed by a range of measures. Some provide advice and guidance, like the surveillance camera <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/surveillance-camera-code-of-practice">code of practice</a>, which sets out <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/368115/Leaflet_v6_WEB.pdf">principles for operators</a> to follow. Others are legal requirements, such as the rules for collection and processing of personal data under the <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/introduction-to-data-protection/about-the-dpa-2018/">Data Protection Act 2018</a> and the <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/">UK General Data Protection Regulation</a> (GDPR).</p>
<p>These measures aim to ensure that any use of surveillance technologies is for legitimate purposes, proportionate, and compliant with relevant legal obligations. A key concern is that surveillance should, as far as possible, be with the informed consent of those surveilled.</p>
<h2>Where do smart doorbells fit in?</h2>
<p>Purely “domestic use” of personal data by a private individual <a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/recitals/no-18/">is exempted</a> from the data protection legislation – for example your list of addresses for sending Christmas cards. But it’s well established that home surveillance systems, including CCTV and smart doorbells, are subject to UK data protection legislation. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?num=C-212/13">key case</a> in 2014 looked at the use of a home CCTV system by a Mr Ryneš in the Czech Republic. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that while Ryneš’ CCTV system was installed for a legitimate purpose – the protection of his property and personal security – the data collection went beyond that permitted solely for domestic use. This is because it collected personal data from a public space, including a footpath and the entrance to his neighbour’s house opposite. </p>
<p>With this ruling, the CJEU confirmed that domestic surveillance systems fall within the scope of the data protection legislation where they capture data beyond the boundaries of the homeowner’s property. This interpretation remains applicable under UK law for now, although the UK government could potentially alter the scope of the “domestic exemption” now that the UK has left the EU.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person using a smartphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428125/original/file-20211024-19-1u9kr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428125/original/file-20211024-19-1u9kr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428125/original/file-20211024-19-1u9kr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428125/original/file-20211024-19-1u9kr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428125/original/file-20211024-19-1u9kr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428125/original/file-20211024-19-1u9kr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428125/original/file-20211024-19-1u9kr72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Smart doorbells notify the homeowner via an app when someone is outside their property.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-teenager-girl-hand-using-mobile-1935518875">siamionau pavel/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While this case <a href="https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/search-judgments/judgment?id=ecb629a7-8980-69d2-b500-ff0000d74aa7">and others</a> that have followed since didn’t involve smart doorbells specifically, the principle is the same. The case of <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Fairhurst-v-Woodard-Judgment-1.pdf">Fairhurst vs Woodard</a> in the English County Court in October 2021 reinforces the view that the courts are likely to take a dim view of those who fail to use home surveillance equipment in a way that respects the rights of other people, including their neighbours. </p>
<p>Woodard installed a range of surveillance technology, including CCTV cameras and a smart doorbell, for home security purposes. But these could record video and audio well beyond the boundaries of his property. He then actively misled his neighbour, Fairhurst, as to how and when the cameras operated. The court found Woodard to have breached his data protection obligation to process data in a lawful and transparent way, and to have collected personal data without a specified or lawful purpose, as required by the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-gdpr-mean-for-me-an-explainer-96630">What does GDPR mean for me? An explainer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The court did recognise that home security could be a legitimate purpose for collection of data that would otherwise breach a neighbour’s right to privacy, if the collection was reasonable and proportionate for that purpose. For example, in relation to Woodard’s Amazon Ring doorbell, the court held that capture of incidental personal data (such as video of Fairhurst walking past) was permissible. However, the capture of audio at a significant distance exceeded what was reasonable for the purposes, as did the fact the system’s viewing range recorded large areas of Fairhurst’s property, including her side gate, garden and parking space.</p>
<p>It’s worth noting that Woodard’s use of his home surveillance system, and his interaction with Fairhurst concerning that use, also led to a successful action for harassment against him.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1448692404932988930"}"></div></p>
<h2>Some tips</h2>
<p>If you’re considering installing a home surveillance system, such as a smart doorbell, you should:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>identify a clear and justified purpose for your use of CCTV, such as home security;</p></li>
<li><p>when purchasing a system, consider the scope of data it can capture, whether this is reasonable for your intended purpose, and if the system can be tailored to protect other people’s privacy rights. For example, with some systems it’s possible to disable audio, and to set “privacy” zones which are not recorded;</p></li>
<li><p>ensure there is signage stating recording is taking place, and why;</p></li>
<li><p>keep all data collected secure and accessible only to those who need it, and delete it when no longer needed;</p></li>
<li><p>comply with requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR, such as responding to requests from individuals about data you may hold on them, and deleting data if requested to do so.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The <a href="https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/domestic-cctv-systems-guidance-for-people-using-cctv/">Information Commissioner’s Office</a> has also produced some helpful advice for people installing home CCTV systems. </p>
<p>Pleasingly, providers are becoming more aware of the risks and requirements of home surveillance technologies and are building in new features which may encourage lawful use. For example, Amazon has recently added <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/13/22574629/ring-end-to-end-encryption-video-streams-us-global">end-to-end encryption</a> to its smart doorbell technologies. This aims to keep personal data captured secure against misuse by third parties by restricting access to video and audio streams to specified devices and permitted users.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: this article originally said that a man faced a £100,000 fine from a UK judge. This should have said damages instead of a fine, and has now been changed.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170180/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Charlesworth does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A UK court recently ruled that a man’s smart doorbell invaded his neighbour’s privacy, and he now faces being required to pay damages. But this kind of situation is avoidable.Andrew Charlesworth, Professor of Law, Innovation and Society, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1577892021-03-29T14:16:00Z2021-03-29T14:16:00ZAI-driven CCTV upgrades are coming to the ‘world’s most watched’ streets – will they make Britain safer?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391440/original/file-20210324-21-1n7zubv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=113%2C0%2C881%2C625&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">CCTV technology has evolved in the decades since it was first introduced.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-rough-dirty-security-video-cameras-1456529840">Orso/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Renewed concern about the safety of public streets, <a href="https://theconversation.com/survey-shows-32-of-british-women-dont-feel-safe-walking-alone-at-night-compared-to-just-13-of-men-157446">especially for women</a>, has prompted the UK government to announce the doubling of a “Safer Streets” fund <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2021/03/15/ministers-vow-45m-fund-for-safer-streets-including-lighting-and-cctv-14249940/">to £45 million</a>, with planned measures including <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56410943">more CCTV</a> in public places such as parks. </p>
<p>This would be to add to a street surveillance ecosystem that is already extensive in the UK – often referred to as the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-maximum-surveillance-society-9781847881069/">most surveilled</a> nation on Earth. The first wave of surveillance cameras went in <a href="https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/12083/1/Webster_2004_The_Diffusion_Regulation_and_Governance%2520of_CCTV.pdf">30 years ago</a>, and by 2013 an estimated <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10172298/One-surveillance-camera-for-every-11-people-in-Britain-says-CCTV-survey.html">5.9 million units</a> were watching UK streets. That figure is likely far higher today, driven in part by the new availability of compact cameras like <a href="https://wiredsmart.io/dash-cams/evolution-and-history/">dashcams</a>, <a href="https://lerablog.org/technology/electronics/the-rise-of-the-body-worn-camera/">bodycams</a> and <a href="https://nsjonline.com/article/2019/09/doorbell-cameras-and-privacy-who-is-watching/">doorbell cameras</a>. </p>
<p>But the overall picture of the UK’s street surveillance ecosystem is muddled, with some cameras too old to produce quality images, others aimed at entryways rather than streets, and some smaller cameras, like those attached to bodies and vehicles, not suited to general public safety. </p>
<p>Enlarging that ecosystem still further may be a seductive policy solution to street safety concerns, but there’s limited evidence of their effectiveness at <a href="https://library.college.police.uk/docs/what-works/What-works-briefing-effects-of-CCTV-2013.pdf">reducing</a> and <a href="https://library.college.police.uk/HeritageScripts/Hapi.dll/search2?searchterm=c46511&Fields=Z&Media=%23&Bool=AND&searchterm=c46511&Fields=Z&Media=%23&Bool=AND">deterring</a> crime. And, as women’s groups have recently pointed out, the focus on street surveillance neglects the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/21/world/europe/sarah-everard-police-uk.html">wider societal change</a> required in order to make women feel safer in public places.</p>
<h2>CCTV ecosystem</h2>
<p>Most CCTV cameras in the UK are actually privately owned – either put up by businesses looking to protect their premises, or attached to private residencies for security. According to some estimates, just <a href="https://www.infologue.com/industry/just-1-in-70-cctv-cameras-are-state-owned-bsia-survey-reveals/">1 in 70</a> CCTV cameras are state-owned, and many of these are placed in and around public buildings.</p>
<p>This has resulted in a <a href="https://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=i%2Fcctv-hotspots-uk">disparate and fragmented</a> CCTV ecosystem, with cameras concentrated in commercial districts rather than in residential neighbourhoods. This disparity has led to concerns that cameras may serve to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1748895809102554">displace crime</a> from central, surveilled areas into residential ones.</p>
<p>Even in commercial areas, many cameras were initially installed to monitor entryways into buildings – not to enhance street safety – and the angle at which they’re positioned reflects this function. Meanwhile, a certain proportion of cameras are broken and out of use – some are too old to offer <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/6088086/Worthless-CCTV-camera-footage-is-not-good-enough-to-fight-crime-leading-QC-warns.html">reliable footage</a> in criminal prosecutions, while others are actually switched off too due to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/cctv-cameras-being-switched-off-to-save-money-watchdog-warns">funding issues</a>. There are concerns that such cameras merely offer <a href="https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/11/beyond_security.html">the illusion</a> of safety and security, without the capacity to record crime on our streets.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/survey-shows-32-of-british-women-dont-feel-safe-walking-alone-at-night-compared-to-just-13-of-men-157446">Survey shows 32% of British women don't feel safe walking alone at night – compared to just 13% of men</a>
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<p>Public support for CCTV, which is still relatively <a href="https://securitynewsdesk.com/cctv-enjoys-86-public-support-call-better-monitoring-information/">strong</a>, is based on the premise that <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/news/cctv-does-it-actually-work-2507086">cameras work</a> – and that they can be used in the public interest. While there are millions of cameras watching UK streets, they’re only watching select parts of them in what is a fragmented patchwork that may have little effect on street safety.</p>
<h2>New cameras</h2>
<p>But the CCTV ecosystem is also evolving. Old cameras have been replaced by new digital ones with significantly improved <a href="https://theconversation.com/surveillance-cameras-will-soon-be-unrecognisable-time-for-an-urgent-public-conversation-118931">surveillance capabilities</a>. Sharper recordings now offer clearer pictures that could used as trustworthy evidence in legal proceedings. And the growing profusion of internet-connected “smart cameras”, offer a new way to analyse footage via Artificial Intelligence (AI), both in real-time or via recordings after incidents have occurred.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The shoulder of a police officer in the UK with a bodycam on it" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392262/original/file-20210329-21-sa5uv9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392262/original/file-20210329-21-sa5uv9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392262/original/file-20210329-21-sa5uv9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392262/original/file-20210329-21-sa5uv9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392262/original/file-20210329-21-sa5uv9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392262/original/file-20210329-21-sa5uv9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392262/original/file-20210329-21-sa5uv9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In the UK, bodycams that also record audio are worn by some police officers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-26th-june-2019-body-1456475102">John Gomez/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Such AI, in use across some CCTV ecosystems, can be used to automatically analyse unfolding situations, potentially enhancing public safety. These systems are proving useful for identifying objects on train tracks, monitoring crowd size, <a href="https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/08/the-new-eyes-of-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-and-humanizing-technology/">recognising unusual behaviour</a>, and identifying known suspects in a dragnet of recordings from a certain area. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/surveillance-cameras-will-soon-be-unrecognisable-time-for-an-urgent-public-conversation-118931">Surveillance cameras will soon be unrecognisable – time for an urgent public conversation</a>
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<p>But new, AI-driven surveillance technology is <a href="https://videosurveillance.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/21/the-debate-on-automatic-facial-recognition-continues/">fiercely contested</a>. For instance, facial recognition software, which is seen as desirable for policing, has been criticised for being unreliable and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03186-4">racially biased</a>. Police access to personal surveillance footage, like that from a doorbell camera which records everyone who visits your home, could also become a contentious privacy issue in the near future.</p>
<h2>Governing CCTV</h2>
<p>New technology within and behind cameras has the potential to enhance the reliability of street surveillance. If it’s leveraged correctly, it could deter crime and facilitate the successful prosecution of criminals caught on CCTV. But to operate effectively and legally, this new ecosystem will require <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/domestic-cctv-using-cctv-systems-on-your-property/domestic-cctv-using-cctv-systems-on-your-property">new forms of governance</a> and coordination that weren’t needed a decade ago.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, the UK government appointed a new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-biometrics-and-surveillance-camera-commissioner-appointed">Surveillance Camera Commissioner</a>, who has been tasked with governing the fast-moving world of surveillance cameras. Noticeably, this office has been combined with that of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/biometrics-commissioner">Biometrics Commissioner</a> – a possible indicator of the direction of travel for the UK’s CCTV ecosystem, which may be set to merge with biometrics and advanced surveillance software.</p>
<p>Still, the UK’s Safer Streets initiative does also look beyond CCTV: funding improved street lighting and increased street patrols. This points to a recognition that CCTV technology is no silver bullet solution for public safety issues – even within the limited scope of <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opinion/better-street-lighting-alone-wont-make-our-cities-safer-for-women?tkn=1">urban design</a>.</p>
<p>In this context, and given existing flaws in the UK’s patchy CCTV ecosystem, faith in street surveillance as an effective public safety provision may be misplaced. Real street safety, extending far beyond the reach of CCTV cameras, won’t be achieved by technology – it’ll be achieved by social change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Webster is an unpaid advisor to the Surveillance Camera Commissioner and is responsible for leading the Civil Engagement element of the National Surveillance Camera Strategy.</span></em></p>The CCTV ecosystem is evolving – but it’s still a sparse patchwork with limited efficacy in reducing or prosecuting crime.William Webster, Professor and Director, Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1413572020-07-09T20:00:58Z2020-07-09T20:00:58ZFacial recognition technology is expanding rapidly across Australia. Are our laws keeping pace?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346509/original/file-20200709-34-1u8uyj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Smith Collection/Gado/Sipa USA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Facial recognition technology is increasingly being <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-17/facial-surveillance-slowly-being-trialled-around-the-country/12308282">trialled and deployed</a> around Australia. Queensland and Western Australia are reportedly already using real-time facial recognition through CCTV cameras. 7-Eleven Australia is also <a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/7-eleven-australia-deploys-facial-recognition-on-customer-feedback-tablets-549538">deploying facial recognition technology</a> in its 700 stores nationwide for what it says is customer feedback. </p>
<p>And Australian police are <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-police-are-using-the-clearview-ai-facial-recognition-system-with-no-accountability-132667">reportedly using</a> a facial recognition system that allows them to identify members of the public from online photographs.</p>
<p>Facial recognition technology has a somewhat nefarious reputation in some police states and non-democratic countries. It has been used by the police in China to identify anti-Beijing protesters in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/26/technology/hong-kong-protests-facial-recognition-surveillance.html">Hong Kong</a> and monitor members of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/apr/11/china-hi-tech-war-on-muslim-minority-xinjiang-uighurs-surveillance-face-recognition">Uighur minority</a> in Xinjiang. </p>
<p>With the spread of this technology in Australia and other democratic countries, there are important questions about the legal implications of scanning, storing and sharing facial images. </p>
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<h2>Use of technology by public entities</h2>
<p>The use of facial recognition technology by immigration authorities (for example, in the channels at airports for people with electronic passports) and police departments is authorised by law and therefore subject to public scrutiny through parliamentary processes.</p>
<p>In a positive sign, the government’s proposed identity matching services laws are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1037969X20920008">currently being scrutinised</a> by a parliamentary committee, which will address concerns over <a href="http://www.unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/article/who-owns-information-law-enforcement-information-sharing-as-a-case-study-in-conceptual-confusion/">data sharing</a> and the potential for people to be incorrectly identified. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-governments-proposed-facial-recognition-database-is-causing-such-alarm-125811">Why the government's proposed facial recognition database is causing such alarm</a>
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<p>Indeed, Australian Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow recently <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/technology/harm-against-humans-rights-chief-warns-of-facial-recognition-threat-20200611-p551o6.html">sounded an alarm</a> over the lack of regulation in this area. </p>
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<p>At the moment, there are not strong and clear enough legal protections in place to prevent the misuse of facial recognition in high stakes areas like policing or law enforcement.</p>
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<p>Another specific concern with the legislation is that people’s data <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-governments-proposed-facial-recognition-database-is-causing-such-alarm-125811">could be shared</a> between government agencies and private companies like telcos and banks.</p>
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<h2>How private operators work</h2>
<p>Then there is the use of facial recognition technology by private companies, such as banks, telcos and even 7-Elevens.</p>
<p>Here, the first thing to determine is if the technology is being used on public or private land. A private landowner can do whatever it likes to protect itself, its wares and its occupants so long as <a href="https://legal.thomsonreuters.com.au/the-law-of-private-security-in-australia-2nd-edition/productdetail/99342">it doesn’t break the law</a> (for example, by unlawful restraint or a discriminatory practice). </p>
<p>This would include allowing for the installation and monitoring of staff and visitors <a href="https://theconversation.com/cctv-who-can-watch-whom-under-the-law-63046">through facial recognition cameras</a>. </p>
<p>By contrast, on public land, any decision to deploy such tools must go through a more transparent decision-making process (say, a council meeting) where the public has an opportunity to respond. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-police-are-using-the-clearview-ai-facial-recognition-system-with-no-accountability-132667">Australian police are using the Clearview AI facial recognition system with no accountability</a>
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<p>This isn’t the case, however, for many “public” properties (such as sports fields, schools, universities, shopping centres and hospitals) that are privately owned or managed. As such, they can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/non-police-doing-police-type-work-operate-in-a-perilously-grey-area-of-law-53219">privately secured</a> through the use of guards monitoring CCTV cameras and other technologies.</p>
<p>Facial recognition is not the only surveillance tool available to these private operators. Others include iris and <a href="https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/retina-scan">retina scanners</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140916102000.htm">GIS profiling</a>, <a href="https://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/the-7-most-important-data-mining-techniques">internet data-mining</a> (which includes “<a href="https://www.datamation.com/big-data/predictive-analytics-examples.html">predictive analytics</a>,” that is, building a customer database on the strength of online behaviours), and “<a href="https://hbr.org/2019/01/neuromarketing-what-you-need-to-know">neuromarketing</a>” (the use of surveillance tools to capture a consumer’s attributes during purchases). </p>
<p>There’s more. Our technological wizardry also allows the private sector to store and retrieve huge amounts of customer data, including every purchase we make and the price we paid. And the major political parties have compiled <a href="https://www.aspg.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/02-Onselen-Errington-full.pdf">extensive private databanks</a> on the makeup of households and likely electoral preferences of their occupants.</p>
<p>Is it any wonder we have started to become <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2524167">a little alarmed</a> by the reach of surveillance and data retention tools in our lives? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/large-scale-facial-recognition-is-incompatible-with-a-free-society-126282">Large-scale facial recognition is incompatible with a free society</a>
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<h2>What’s currently allowed under the law</h2>
<p>The law in this area is new and struggling to keep up with the pace of change. One thing is clear: the law does not prohibit even highly intrusive levels of surveillance by the private sector on private land in the absence of illegal conduct. </p>
<p>The most useful way of reviewing the legal principles in this space is to pose specific questions: </p>
<p><strong>Can visitors be legally photographed and scanned when entering businesses?</strong></p>
<p>The answer is yes where visitors have been warned of the presence of cameras and scanners by the use of signs. Remaining on the premises denotes implied consent to the conditions of entry. </p>
<p><strong>Do people have any recourse if they don’t want their image taken?</strong></p>
<p>No. The law does very little to protect those who may be upset by the obvious presence of a surveillance device on a door, ceiling or wall. The best option for anybody concerned about this is to leave the premises or not enter in the first place. </p>
<p><strong>What about sharing images? Can private operators do whatever they like with them?</strong></p>
<p>No. The sharing of electronic data is limited by what are referred to as the “<a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/australian-privacy-principles-guidelines/">privacy principles</a>”, which govern the rights and obligations around the collection, use and sharing of personal information. These were extended to the private sector in 2001 by amendments to the Commonwealth <a href="https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/cth/consol_act/pa1988108/">Privacy Act 1988</a>.</p>
<p>These privacy principles would certainly prohibit the sharing of images except, for example, if a store was requested by police to hand them over for investigation purposes.</p>
<p><strong>Can private businesses legally store your image?</strong></p>
<p>Yes, private or commercial enterprises can store images of people captured on their cameras in their own databases. A person can ask for the image to be disclosed to them (that is, to confirm it is held by the store and to see it) under the “privacy principles”. Few people would bother, though, since it’s unlikely they would know it even exists.</p>
<p>The privacy principles do, however, require the business to take reasonable steps to destroy the data or image (or ensure there is de-identification) once it is no longer needed.</p>
<p><strong>What if facial recognition technology is used without warnings like signs?</strong></p>
<p>If there is a demonstrable public interest in any type of covert surveillance (for example, to ensure patrons in casino gaming rooms are not cheating, or to ensure public safety in crowded walkways), and there is no evidence of, or potential for, misuse, then the law permits it. </p>
<p>However, it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-law-say-about-secret-recordings-and-the-public-interest-140731">not legal to film someone covertly</a> unless there is a public interest in doing so. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-regulating-facial-recognition-technology-is-so-problematic-and-necessary-107284">Why regulating facial recognition technology is so problematic - and necessary</a>
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<h2>What does the future hold?</h2>
<p>Any change to the laws in this area is a matter for our parliamentarians. They have been slow to respond given the difficulty of determining what is required. </p>
<p>It will not be easy to frame legislation that strikes the right balance between respecting individuals’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/animal-activists-v-private-landowners-what-does-the-law-say-110279">rights to privacy</a> and the desires of commercial entities to keep their stock, patrons and staff secure.</p>
<p>In the meantime, there are steps we can all take to safeguard our privacy. If you want to protect your image completely, don’t select a phone that switches on when you look at it, and don’t get a passport. </p>
<p>And if certain businesses want to scan your face when you enter their premises, give them a wide berth, and your feedback.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Sarre is a member of the SA State Council of the ALP. </span></em></p>There are questions being raised about the legality of scanning, storing and sharing facial images. The law currently doesn’t prohibit even highly intrusive levels of surveillance by private entities.Rick Sarre, Adjunct Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1271182020-02-04T18:57:48Z2020-02-04T18:57:48ZDarwin’s ‘smart city’ project is about surveillance and control<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313461/original/file-20200204-41516-olf6rl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C1493%2C997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bidgee/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Darwin City Council installed a network of hundreds of new devices across the centre of the city last year. This web of “smart” lights, environmental sensors and video cameras is designed to give the council more power to monitor and manage urban places – and the people who occupy them. </p>
<p>The council says the A$10 million “<a href="https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/council/transforming-darwin/key-projects/switchingondarwin">Switching on Darwin</a>” project is “delivering smart technology to encourage innovative solutions and enhance community life”. We argue it is better seen as a project of surveillance and control, which is embedded in a long history of settler-colonial urbanism.</p>
<h2>Intensified surveillance</h2>
<p>Journalists and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/505755470028036/permalink/515375359066047/">community members</a> alike worried about the project. The scale and rapid rollout of the project, some argued, meant it would erode Darwinians’ privacy through intensified surveillance. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-chinas-social-credit-system-coming-to-australia-117095">Is China's social credit system coming to Australia?</a>
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<p>The introduction of new digital surveillance measures in Darwin poses particular concerns for already marginalised groups, as ANU sociologists Gavin Smith and Pat O’Malley have pointed out. The most affected are likely to be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who are already disproportionately <a href="http://www.yjc.org.au/resources/YJC-STMP-Report.pdf">targeted</a>, <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/white-justice-black-suffering/">criminalised</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2018/aug/28/deaths-inside-indigenous-australian-deaths-in-custody">incarcerated</a>. </p>
<p>The Darwin project also occurs in the context of the federal government’s plan to develop northern Australia. This development agenda has been criticised for, among other things, its <a href="https://newmatilda.com/2014/11/11/white-paper-black-australia-developing-whose-northern-australia-whom/">lack of interest</a> in the Indigenous people who are the traditional owners of much of the land. </p>
<h2>Privacy concerns dismissed</h2>
<p>Two of the chief concerns for Switching on Darwin critics were the possible use of facial recognition software and the potential involvement of Chinese tech company Huawei. Darwin’s lord mayor <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-13/darwin-smart-city-rollout-privacy-concerns-dismissed-lord-mayor/11203528">dismissed</a> criticisms as the baseless concerns of “conspiracy theorists”. He also gave advice to people worried about privacy: “don’t get a licence, give away your credit cards, and get out of Facebook”. </p>
<p>Compared with the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0162243918806061">slick sales pitch</a> that usually accompanies smart city projects, the lord mayor’s blunt approach is more like the strident accusations of “fake news” that are now common in political discourse. </p>
<h2>The logic of ‘smart cities’</h2>
<p>But if we dig a little deeper, the lord mayor’s comments reveal a set of assumptions about “smart cities” that animate conversations about how cities should work in Australia. </p>
<p>First, that digital technologies – typically in the form of solutions and services bought from companies outside government – are a necessary part of <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/cities/city-deals/darwin/">“vibrant” and “liveable”</a> <a href="http://www.choosebrisbane.com.au/2022plan">“world cities”</a>. </p>
<p>Second, that privacy and surveillance issues are unfortunate byproducts of technological progress, but are outweighed by their benefits. </p>
<p>And finally, that technologies are straightforward non-political ways to change cities.</p>
<p>For governments and corporations, the vision of the smart city means a generic “public” enjoys more convenience, planners enjoys more information and efficiency, and politicians enjoy more growth and security. It’s an enticing vision, but it is built on faulty assumptions. </p>
<p>This vision assumes smart systems are simply a matter of technocratic management or corporate outsourcing and focuses on the supposedly unprecedented “disruption” of emerging technologies. In doing this, it overlooks important connections between the operations of smart urbanism and much older practices of colonial control. </p>
<p>Smart urban systems function in remarkably similar ways, for similar purposes and with similar outcomes. For example, the high-tech, data-driven systems that police now use to identify and assess people, like the New South Wales Police Force’s Suspect Targeting Management Plan, <a href="https://rlc.org.au/article/policing-young-people-nsw-study-suspect-targeting-management-plan">disproportionately target</a> the same exact marginalised groups who have always been subjected to over-policing – in this case young and/or Aboriginal people. But now these decisions can be hidden and justified by algorithmic analysis.</p>
<p>Existing power dynamics and structural inequalities cannot be erased by installing some new digital systems and declaring that the future city has arrived. Instead, the new systems can make these dynamics harder to see and at the same time entrench them more deeply.</p>
<h2>Captured cities</h2>
<p>In practice, the smart city is very different from the vision. It is better understood as the <a href="https://reallifemag.com/the-captured-city/">captured city</a>.</p>
<p>As a model for urban governance, the captured city takes the capabilities offered by smart systems and puts them to work in surveillance and control. Often this includes importing tools and ideas from military intelligence into police departments, and extending methods of colonial control – such as <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/today/amy-mcquire/2017/21/2017/1487653645/please-hold">welfare restrictions in Aboriginal communities</a> – to the population at large.</p>
<p>The city and its inhabitants are thus “captured”, both by surveillance that collects data and by authorities who control territory. </p>
<p>What happens to the captured city then will be shaped by the context in which the smart urban systems are deployed. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-communities-are-reworking-urban-planning-but-planners-need-to-accept-their-history-92351">Indigenous communities are reworking urban planning, but planners need to accept their history</a>
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<p>There is no reason to believe things will be different now because the boosters of smart urbanism drop a few buzzwords and make some lofty promises. Indeed, these technologies equip the state with even better tools to monitor and control its population – often by design. We’ve heard it all before, every time a tech executive or venture capitalist makes promises to fulfil the techno-utopian dream of disruption.</p>
<h2>Darwin is not alone</h2>
<p>Darwin is well on its way to becoming a captured city, but it is not alone. As all levels of government across Australia seek smarter ways of governing, examples of similar urban technologies being used in policing and control are springing up around the country.</p>
<p>These projects include a police scheme to target people who they believe may commit crimes in future in Sydney (which <a href="https://rlc.org.au/article/policing-young-people-nsw-study-suspect-targeting-management-plan">disproportionately affects Aboriginal people</a>), “<a href="https://westender.com.au/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/WETA-CPTED-Study.pdf">Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design</a>” guidelines in Brisbane and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-08/city-of-perth-rolls-out-new-facial-recognition-cctv-cameras/11147780">facial recognition systems</a> in Perth. </p>
<p>These examples demonstrate how the perceived neutrality of smart city technology uses stories about progress, modernity and innovation to entrench and disguise existing urban injustices. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the “smart city” in Australia is best understood not as a break with older, analogue modes of governing urban space, but as a continuation of the settler-colonial project of <a href="http://radioskidrow.org/projects/survival-guide">displacement, enclosure and control</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘Smart cities’, featuring networks of automatic lights, video cameras and environmental sensors, have been hailed as an enhancement to urban life. But they are also tools of surveillance and control.Jathan Sadowski, Research Fellow in the Emerging Technologies Research Lab, Monash UniversityAnna Carlson, Researcher, School of Political Science & International Studies, The University of QueenslandNatalie Osborne, Lecturer, School of Environment and Science, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1221372019-08-21T13:47:19Z2019-08-21T13:47:19ZFacial recognition: ten reasons you should be worried about the technology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288912/original/file-20190821-170922-16dr2bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-portrait-attractive-african-woman-facial-1160287945?src=j2YHKqXCPj1yiGwR-nCHbw-1-44">Karelnoppe/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Facial recognition technology is spreading fast. Already <a href="https://fortune.com/2018/10/28/in-china-facial-recognition-tech-is-watching-you/">widespread in China</a>, software that identifies people by comparing images of their faces against a database of records is now being adopted across much of the rest of the world. It’s common among <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/how-facial-recognition-became-routine-policing-tool-america-n1004251">police forces</a> but has also been used at <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/when-your-face-is-your-boarding-pass-you-are-holidaying-with-big-brother-1.3949353">airports</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49357759">railway stations</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-49369772">shopping centres</a>.</p>
<p>The rapid growth of this technology has triggered a much-needed debate. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/21/office-worker-launches-uks-first-police-facial-recognition-legal-action">Activists</a>, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/19/20812032/bernie-sanders-facial-recognition-police-ban-surveillance-reform">politicians</a>, <a href="https://www.essex.ac.uk/news/2019/07/03/met-police-live-facial-recognition-trial-concerns">academics</a> and even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/17/police-halt-trials-face-recognition-systems-surveillance-technology">police forces</a> are expressing serious concerns over the impact facial recognition could have on a political culture based on rights and democracy. </p>
<h2>Human rights concerns</h2>
<p>As someone who researches the future of human rights, I share these concerns. Here are ten reasons why we should worry about the use of facial recognition technology in public spaces.</p>
<p><strong>1) It puts us on a path towards automated blanket surveillance</strong></p>
<p>CCTV is already widespread around the world, but for governments to use footage against you they have to find specific clips of you doing something they can claim as evidence. Facial recognition technology brings monitoring to new levels. It enables the automated and indiscriminate live surveillance of people as they go about their daily business, giving authorities the chance to track your every move.</p>
<p><strong>2) It operates without a clear legal or regulatory framework</strong></p>
<p>Most countries have no specific legislation that regulates the use of facial recognition technology, although <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news-parliament-2017/biometrics-strategy-report-publication-17-19">some lawmakers</a> are <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/8/9/20799022/facial-recognition-law">trying to change</a> this. This legal limbo opens the door to abuse, such as obtaining our images without our <a href="https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/news/press-releases-and-statements/liberty-client-takes-police-ground-breaking-facial-recognition">knowledge or consent</a> and using them in ways we would not approve of.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288915/original/file-20190821-170906-fc2pe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288915/original/file-20190821-170906-fc2pe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288915/original/file-20190821-170906-fc2pe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288915/original/file-20190821-170906-fc2pe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288915/original/file-20190821-170906-fc2pe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288915/original/file-20190821-170906-fc2pe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288915/original/file-20190821-170906-fc2pe5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Authorities don’t need to capture everyone’s image to ensure law and order.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-picked-out-by-face-1437798524?src=6fixjEhTOV1qTepLhvHttA-1-11">Axel Buerckert/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>3) It violates the principles of necessity and proportionality</strong></p>
<p>A commonly stated human rights principle, recognised by organisations <a href="https://www.article19.org/resources/un-resolution-affirms-surveillance-that-is-not-necessary-or-proportionate-is-against-the-right-to-privacy/">from the UN</a> to the <a href="http://www.policingethicspanel.london/uploads/4/4/0/7/44076193/lfr_final_report_-_may_2019.pdf">London Policing Ethics Panel</a>, is that surveillance should be necessary and proportionate. This means surveillance should be restricted to the pursuit of serious crime instead of enabling the unjustified interference into our liberty and fundamental rights. Facial recognition technology is at odds with these principles. It is a technology of control that is symptomatic of the state’s mistrust of its citizens.</p>
<p><strong>4) It violates our right to privacy</strong></p>
<p>The right to privacy matters, even in public spaces. It protects the expression of our identity without uncalled-for intrusion from the state or from private companies. Facial recognition technology’s indiscriminate and large-scale recording, storing and analysing of our images <a href="https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2019/08/statement-live-facial-recognition-technology-in-kings-cross">undermines this right</a> because it means we can no longer do anything in public without the state knowing about it.</p>
<p><strong>5) It has a chilling effect on our democratic political culture</strong></p>
<p>Blanket surveillance can deter individuals from attending public events. It can stifle participation in political protests and campaigns for change. And it can discourage nonconformist behaviour. This chilling effect is a serious infringement on the right to freedom of assembly, association, and expression.</p>
<hr>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/surveillance-cameras-will-soon-be-unrecognisable-time-for-an-urgent-public-conversation-118931">Surveillance cameras will soon be unrecognisable – time for an urgent public conversation</a>
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<p><strong>6) It denies citizens the opportunity for consent</strong></p>
<p>There is a lack of detailed and specific information as to how facial recognition is actually used. This means that we are not given the opportunity <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/federal-court-sounds-alarm-privacy-harms-face">to consent</a> to the recording, analysing and storing of our images in databases. By denying us the opportunity to <a href="https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/consent/why-is-consent-important/">consent</a>, we are denied choice and control over the use of our own images.</p>
<p><strong>7) It is often inaccurate</strong></p>
<p>Facial recognition technology promises accurate identification. But <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/amazons-face-recognition-falsely-matched-28">numerous studies</a> have highlighted how the algorithms trained on racially biased data sets misidentify people of colour, especially women of colour. Such <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/best-algorithms-struggle-recognize-black-faces-equally/">algorithmic bias</a> is particularly worrying if it results in unlawful arrests, or if it leads public agencies and private companies to discriminate against women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds.</p>
<p><strong>8) It can lead to automation bias</strong></p>
<p>If the people using facial recognition software mistakenly believe that the technology is infallible, it can lead to <a href="https://theconversation.com/automation-can-leave-us-complacent-and-that-can-have-dangerous-consequences-62429">bad decisions</a>. This “<a href="https://thewire.in/tech/india-is-falling-down-the-facial-recognition-rabbit-hole">automation bias</a>” must be avoided. Machine-generated outcomes should not determine how state agencies or private corporations treat individuals. Trained human operators must exercise meaningful control and take decisions based in law.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288919/original/file-20190821-170914-kl4m2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288919/original/file-20190821-170914-kl4m2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288919/original/file-20190821-170914-kl4m2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288919/original/file-20190821-170914-kl4m2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288919/original/file-20190821-170914-kl4m2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288919/original/file-20190821-170914-kl4m2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288919/original/file-20190821-170914-kl4m2i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Human operators can rely too much on machines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/security-control-room-officer-monitors-multiple-771480619?src=-1-0">Gorodenkoff</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>9) It implies there are secret government watchlists</strong></p>
<p>The databases that contain our facial images should ring alarm bells. They imply that private companies and law enforcement agencies are sharing our images to build watchlists of potential suspects without our knowledge or consent. This is a serious threat to our individual rights and civil liberties. The security of these databases, and their vulnerability to the actions of hackers, is also cause for concern.</p>
<p><strong>10) It can be used to target already vulnerable groups</strong></p>
<p>Facial recognition technology can be used for blanket surveillance. But it can also be deployed selectively, for example to identify migrants and refugees. The <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/7x59z9/the-facial-recognition-system-amazon-sells-to-cops-can-now-detect-fear">sale of facial recognition software</a> to agencies such as the controversial US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has been <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/abolish-ice">heavily criticised</a> for its tactics in dealing with migrants, should worry anyone who cares for human rights. And the use of handheld mobile devices with a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-49261763">facial recognition app</a> by police forces raises the spectre of enhanced <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/face-recognition-tech/2016/10/17/986929ea-41f0-44a2-b2b9-90b495230dce_story.html">racial profiling</a> at the street level.</p>
<h2>Debate sorely needed</h2>
<p>With so many concerns about facial recognition technology, we desperately need a more prominent conversation on its impact on our rights and civil liberties. Without proper regulation of these systems, we risk creating dystopian police states in what were once free, democratic countries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Birgit Schippers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Surveillance software that identifies people from CCTV is eroding human rights and democracy.Birgit Schippers, Visiting Research Fellow, Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1143842019-07-02T14:00:39Z2019-07-02T14:00:39ZMoral science confirms people behave better when they think they’re being watched<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280205/original/file-20190619-171200-1rr08c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If there exists one moral code that can be shared and agreed by almost all cultures and religions, then it must be the concept of “never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself”. This has come to be known as “the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/magazine/does-the-golden-rule-hold-up-in-modern-society.html">golden rule</a>”. </p>
<p>But do people in modern societies really follow the teaching of this principle, especially when there are financial consequences to their actions? <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/research/themes/golden-rule/">Our research</a> brought this question into the laboratory and set out to answer it with <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecin.12708">a simple game of bargaining</a>. </p>
<p>We invited 300 people to the laboratory at the Centre for Experimental Economics at the University of York to make a series of decisions regarding the split of a fixed amount of money between themselves and another anonymous person in the room. The idea was participants would be required to split an amount of money between themselves and another participant –- with one person in the pair deciding how much they both should get. This was then relayed to a third party who put the offer to the participant.</p>
<p>Each participant could offer their partner anything from zero to the full amount in whole pounds. If the partner said “yes” to the offer, they both received the money. But if the other person rejected the offer (as they felt it was not enough), this would result in a breakdown of the negotiation, meaning both got nothing from this round of the game.</p>
<p>Each participant would in turn experience both roles (the proposer, who makes the offers and the responder, who needs to respond to the offers) with multiple different partners. This increased the chance that one person in the responder role would need to respond to the same offer they made when they acted as the proposer.</p>
<p>What we were particularly interested in was how people would react when they played the responder’s role and were confronted with the same proposal they themselves made. If someone is playing by the golden rule, then they should have no problem being on the receiving end saying “yes” to the offers that equal the ones they made And indeed, we found that most people’s behaviour conforms to the golden rule – in that about 93% of people would say yes to the offers that equal what they proposed to others. </p>
<h2>Being watched</h2>
<p>As the saying goes, one good turn deserves another, and in our experiment, it seemed this was true. Those people who followed the golden rule earned more from the negotiations, compared to the people who chose to go against the golden rule.</p>
<p>But while the figure of 93% indicates that most people followed the golden rule, which sounds encouraging, we found that if people knew their behaviour was not being observed by their opponents, then the percentage of golden rule behaviour dropped by nearly 20%, and only 73% of participants stuck to the rule. </p>
<p>This finding echoes <a href="https://today.uconn.edu/2016/02/keeping-an-eye-on-human-behavior">observations from social psychology</a> that show people behave in a nicer way when they know they are being watched. Indeed, even a poster with eyes on it <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9424-big-brother-eyes-make-us-act-more-honestly/">changes how people behave</a>. And it seems when the chance of being observed is low, people are more prone to evade a moral code.</p>
<h2>Thinking it over</h2>
<p>We found contemplation matters in how people made their decisions. Those who took longer to decide how to split the money were more likely to stray from the golden rule. This may well be because the golden rule is easy to apply, so a longer decision time might reflect the sophisticated nature of the person who is taking a variety of (possibly competing) factors into the decision making process. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280211/original/file-20190619-171271-1s8tgg6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280211/original/file-20190619-171271-1s8tgg6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280211/original/file-20190619-171271-1s8tgg6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280211/original/file-20190619-171271-1s8tgg6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280211/original/file-20190619-171271-1s8tgg6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280211/original/file-20190619-171271-1s8tgg6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280211/original/file-20190619-171271-1s8tgg6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sharing those pennies – with a bit extra for yourself?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>We found experience played a small role in people’s decision making too. Those who played the proposer’s role first were slightly more likely to be a golden rule follower, compared to those who first played the responder’s role. </p>
<p>We found that gender, socio-economic status or cultural factors didn’t make a difference to the golden rule behaviour, which verifies its universality. We also found that people’s golden rule behaviour was not driven by their monetary pursuit – which might come as a surprise – but rather it is the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/research/themes/golden-rule/">power of the moral code</a> itself that drives the behaviour. This is in part down to the notion of “projection bias”, where people have the tendency to project their own thoughts, preferences, and behaviour onto other people – so the idea of unevenly splitting a sum of money while the other person is sitting right in front of you seems problematic. </p>
<p>What this all shows is that so-called “good behaviour” is dependant on on a number of factors –- including whether a person believes they are being observed, or not. This indicates that although most people do follow some form of moral code, to what extent they abide by these rules does differ situation to situation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most people follow some form of moral code, but to what extent they abide by these rules does differ in various situations.Yuan Ju, Chair professor in the Department of Economics, University of YorkJiawen Li, Lecturer in Economics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1189312019-06-18T12:16:23Z2019-06-18T12:16:23ZSurveillance cameras will soon be unrecognisable – time for an urgent public conversation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279992/original/file-20190618-118505-1rkskn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Camera never lies.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/businesswoman-on-blurred-background-using-futuristic-1087470950?src=8S5H3HpVCq7PWLDR8qK20Q-1-7&studio=1">sdecoret</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is often <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8160757.stm">argued</a> that <a href="https://truepublica.org.uk/united-kingdom/britain-now-officially-the-most-surveilled-state-in-the-world/">the UK is the most surveilled</a> country on the planet. This may or may not have been the case in the past but there are <a href="https://www.disnetwork.co.uk/12-facts-cctv-surveillance-uk/">certainly now</a> millions of surveillance cameras in public spaces – not to mention private buildings and homes. Behind those lenses they are changing in ways that people are often barely aware of, with privacy implications that should be widely discussed as a matter of urgency. </p>
<p><a href="https://videosurveillance.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/21/the-debate-on-automatic-facial-recognition-continues/">Automatic face recognition</a> is currently the hot ticket in this industry, having been introduced in a number of cities around the world, in the <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/some-us-cities-moving-real-time-facial-surveillance/">US</a>, <a href="https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/ai/facial-recognition-cameras-5-countries/">China</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-security/german-police-test-facial-recognition-cameras-at-berlin-station-idUSKBN1AH4VR">Germany</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-singapore-surveillance/singapore-to-test-facial-recognition-on-lampposts-stoking-privacy-fears-idUSKBN1HK0RV">Singapore</a>. The police argue that piloting such systems has allowed them to test the technology to help identify potential terrorists and other known offenders. Yet this has to be weighed against different concerns. The broadest is our expectation of privacy and anonymity in public places - and whether this is a step too far towards our every move being visible to the state. </p>
<p>Then there is the question of how well these face recognition systems work at present. Their success rate at recognising faces <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/met-police-facial-recognition-success-south-wales-trial-home-office-false-positive-a8345036.html">has been</a> shown to be as low as 2%. Linked to this is an inbuilt bias within the software that makes the technology <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/technology/facial-recognition-race-artificial-intelligence.html">far less accurate</a> at <a href="https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/resist-facial-recognition">identifying</a> darker skinned people and women. It therefore has the potential to exacerbate tensions between ethnic minorities and the police. </p>
<p>This could be compounded by another contentious issue, which is the police using so-called “watch list” databases of faces against which it is trying to match live images. Typically these databases include policing images of people taken in custody, who may never have been convicted of a crime and are unlikely to have consented to their data being used in this way. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279995/original/file-20190618-118530-k8luh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279995/original/file-20190618-118530-k8luh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279995/original/file-20190618-118530-k8luh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279995/original/file-20190618-118530-k8luh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279995/original/file-20190618-118530-k8luh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279995/original/file-20190618-118530-k8luh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279995/original/file-20190618-118530-k8luh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279995/original/file-20190618-118530-k8luh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Watching you not watching me.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/businesswoman-on-blurred-background-using-futuristic-1087470950?src=8S5H3HpVCq7PWLDR8qK20Q-1-7&studio=1">MY Stock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For these reasons the use of automatic face recognition software has been very controversial, and until the technology is more reliable we should probably be very cautious in how we use it. There have been two significant pilots in the UK in recent times, in the <a href="https://www.south-wales.police.uk/en/news-room/introduction-of-facial-recognition-into-south-wales-police/">south of Wales</a> and in <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/live-facial-recognition-trial/">London</a>. Both are the subject of judicial review actions, brought respectively by civil liberties organisations <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/facial-recognition-technology-south-wales-16305359">Liberty</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/facial-recognition-uk-police-london-inaccurate-legal-challenge-judicial-review-trials-stratford-a8463541.html">Big Brother Watch</a>, which are due to conclude in the coming months. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/setting-precedents-for-privacy-the-uk-legal-challenges-bringing-surveillance-into-the-open-117639">Setting precedents for privacy: the UK legal challenges bringing surveillance into the open</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the US, meanwhile, the city of San Francisco <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/us/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco.html">banned</a> the use of face recognition in its public systems in May. Other American cities are <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/how-a-facial-recognition-ban-could-come-to-your-city-soon/">expected</a> to follow suit – with face recognition software currently <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/some-us-cities-moving-real-time-facial-surveillance/">being used</a> in the likes of Chicago, New York and Detroit. The technology has also <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/05/28/toronto-police-chief-releases-report-on-use-of-facial-recognition-technology.html">generated much debate</a> in Canada, where it is in use in Toronto and some other cities. </p>
<h2>Tomorrow’s world</h2>
<p>Face recognition highlights bigger questions around which types of surveillance cameras and systems are acceptable to society. This question is complicated by the fact that surveillance cameras are becoming more sophisticated and computerised without necessarily looking much different. There is no signage or information that tells us about their enhanced capabilities, which means the activities behind them become less transparent. </p>
<p>As the technology has been miniaturised and costs have fallen, new types of cameras have emerged, including <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/30/traditional-police-notebook-gives-way-body-worn-video-police/">body-worn video devices</a>, <a href="https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2018/09/these-police-drones-are-watching-you/">drones</a>, <a href="https://www.driving.co.uk/news/features/revolutionary-dash-cam-portal-makes-sending-police-videos-dangerous-driving-doddle/">dash</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40920095">head cams</a>. At the same time, imaging and recording techniques have become more and more standardised. This has allowed for greater connectivity between systems and has raised quality to the point that images can be trustworthy evidence in legal proceedings. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279996/original/file-20190618-118497-1cabm6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279996/original/file-20190618-118497-1cabm6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279996/original/file-20190618-118497-1cabm6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279996/original/file-20190618-118497-1cabm6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279996/original/file-20190618-118497-1cabm6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279996/original/file-20190618-118497-1cabm6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279996/original/file-20190618-118497-1cabm6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279996/original/file-20190618-118497-1cabm6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Body cams: already in use.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-19th-april-2019-close-1397810531?src=BheoQpeNZ1VjYavPteecVA-1-26&studio=1">John Gomez</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Besides face recognition, we are seeing the emergence of cameras <a href="https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/07/19/police-bodycams-get-tech-that-can-identify-faces-and-people/">capable of</a> object tracking and recognition, plus advances in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20629671">noise</a> or <a href="https://thenextweb.com/the-next-police/2018/11/29/ai-scanner-detect-drugs-mail/">smell</a> analysis. Police forces in the US and UK <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2186512-exclusive-uk-police-wants-ai-to-stop-violent-crime-before-it-happens/">have been</a> trialling systems that predict how likely individuals are to commit a crime. It is all a quantum leap away from the old CCTV cameras with which we are familiar. </p>
<p>Governance and regulation is having to evolve quickly to keep abreast of this environment. To this end, surveillance cameras in England and Wales are now regulated by the specialist office of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/surveillance-camera-commissioner">Surveillance Camera Commissioner</a>; along with the <a href="https://ico.org.uk">Information Commissioner’s Office</a>, which has responsibility for overseeing data protection in the UK. Also relevant to the use of face recognition systems is the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/biometrics-commissioner">Office of the Biometrics Commissioner</a>.</p>
<h2>Surveillance Camera Day</h2>
<p>Most surveys <a href="https://www.le.ac.uk/oerresources/criminology/msc/unit8/page_16.htm">suggest that</a> the public are in favour of basic CCTV cameras, but the question for those who set the rules is whether citizens would still support these systems if they knew what they were becoming capable of. Judging by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/16/facial-recognition-useless-police-dangerous-met-inaccurate">most reactions</a> in the media to face recognition, it seems not. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279998/original/file-20190618-118526-1hrz7rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279998/original/file-20190618-118526-1hrz7rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279998/original/file-20190618-118526-1hrz7rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279998/original/file-20190618-118526-1hrz7rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279998/original/file-20190618-118526-1hrz7rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279998/original/file-20190618-118526-1hrz7rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1101&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279998/original/file-20190618-118526-1hrz7rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1101&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279998/original/file-20190618-118526-1hrz7rk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1101&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The future once.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cctv-surveillance-camera-375997810?src=rmfzlnrmQickyz0pxFCNaQ-1-3&studio=1">TUM2282</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I suspect that most of the advances in technology could be used to improve the system if they were regulated properly, but cameras must be seen to be delivered in the interests of society and with the support of voters. So where should policymakers draw a line in the sand?</p>
<p>To help with this, a world first is about to take place in the UK on June 20: <a href="https://videosurveillance.blog.gov.uk/2019/04/23/get-involved-in-surveillance-camera-day/">Surveillance Camera Day</a>. This is not intended to be a celebration of surveillance cameras but to allow people to influence how they develop by raising awareness about their capabilities, merits and consequences. It will include everything from <a href="http://www.crisp-surveillance.com/blog/194144/announcing-national-surveillance-camera-day">open days</a> at a number of CCTV control centres to public factsheets to discussions in the media. Everyone can contribute to the conversation through #cameraday2019. </p>
<p>The direction of travel for surveillance cameras does not need to be towards a defined technological determinism where it inevitably becomes more and more intrusive. Surveillance Camera Day represents an opportunity for everyone to help shape the discussion. It will be interesting to observe how the general public and other players respond.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118931/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Webster is an unpaid advisor to the Surveillance Camera Commissioner and is responsible for leading the civil engagement element of the national surveillance camera strategy.</span></em></p>If you thought police surveillance was mere CCTV, it’s time to catch up on what’s happening on the other side of the lens.William Webster, Professor and Director, Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1170952019-05-28T19:46:24Z2019-05-28T19:46:24ZIs China’s social credit system coming to Australia?<p>Privacy was not a hot topic in the recent Australian election, but it should have been. This is because the City of Darwin is adapting elements of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-social-credit-system-puts-its-people-under-pressure-to-be-model-citizens-89963">Chinese social credit system</a> for use in Australia. The Chinese system’s monitoring of citizens’ behaviour has been widely condemned as “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rhockett/2019/01/03/when-is-social-credit-orwellian/#479be9f33674">Orwellian</a>”, with frequent <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained">comparisons to the dystopian near-future sci-fi of Black Mirror</a>. But for Australians it’s pitched as progress towards a digitally integrated future, embedded innocuously in the “<a href="https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/council/transforming-darwin/key-projects/switchingondarwin">Switching on Darwin</a>” plans for a smarter city. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-social-credit-system-puts-its-people-under-pressure-to-be-model-citizens-89963">China’s Social Credit System puts its people under pressure to be model citizens</a>
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<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276674/original/file-20190528-193544-hdjzmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276674/original/file-20190528-193544-hdjzmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276674/original/file-20190528-193544-hdjzmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276674/original/file-20190528-193544-hdjzmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276674/original/file-20190528-193544-hdjzmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276674/original/file-20190528-193544-hdjzmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276674/original/file-20190528-193544-hdjzmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276674/original/file-20190528-193544-hdjzmc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=The%20NT%20News%20darwin%20smart%20city%20Chinese-inspired%20surveillance&epa=SEARCH_BOX">Facebook/NT News</a></span>
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<p>To see why this is a worrying development for Australian democracy one must first play a patient game of join the dots. </p>
<p><strong>Dot 1.</strong> One of Darwin’s <a href="https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/community/programs/sister-cities-program/overview">six “sister cities”</a> is Haikou, capital of the Chinese island province of Hainan. Links established through sister-city relationships are commonly understood to be a springboard to wider networks of co-operative arrangements. Such connections may provide opportunities for cultural exchange, but also for technological exchange. </p>
<p>Recently there have been reports on how smart city plans in Darwin <a href="https://t.co/iMm1iXhUxZ">draw inspiration</a> from the Chinese social credit surveillance system.</p>
<p>The potential of the system for gathering data on citizens’ use of public services, such as Wi-Fi, has been noted. The potential to enhance council profitability through sale of user data to the private sector is significant. More so is the potential for this system to track citizen movements in real time.</p>
<p><strong>Dot 2.</strong> The 2019 Northern Territory government budget earmarks A$1.4 million for expanding the local CCTV network as part of “<a href="http://newsroom.nt.gov.au/mediaRelease/28990">Investing in a Safer Territory</a>”. This figure might yet be supplemented by “proceeds of crime” funds, making the investment much larger. </p>
<p>That’s enough money to roll out biometric facial recognition software, which can link your face from a live CCTV image to your driver licence or passport, as well as “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triggerfish_(surveillance)">triggerfish</a>” apps that can access, for example, identifying data on your smartphone remotely without your knowledge. All of these systems can be automated.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/big-brother-is-watching-how-new-technologies-are-changing-police-surveillance-115841">Big brother is watching: how new technologies are changing police surveillance</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Dot 3.</strong> The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018B00180">Encryption Act</a>, rushed through federal parliament in December 2018, gave law enforcement and intelligence agencies unprecedented access to communications technology. Telecommunications providers must now provide potentially unlimited back doors into private data. They must also, by law, conceal that they have done so from customers/citizens. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-encryption-laws-finally-passed-despite-concerns-over-security-108409">The government's encryption laws finally passed despite concerns over security</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Foundations of a surveillance state are in place</h2>
<p>Each dot offers a point of triangulation for very real fears about the form and nature of Australian democracy in years to come. Combine these points of technology and law and we see the foundation of a surveillance state. </p>
<p>The ability of agencies to track citizen activity extends from which websites you browse on your mobile to what you write in your private messages to where you are right now. Given how grey these laws are, and the absence of a constitutionally protected <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-should-strengthen-its-privacy-laws-and-remove-exemptions-for-politicians-93717">right to privacy in Australia</a>, this could extend to criminal records, medical files, payslips, spending patterns and browsing histories.</p>
<p>The Northern Territory News <a href="http://ntnews.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx?issue=66962019041500000000001001&page=5&article=df65383d-2ea2-4913-8107-1e06398d0183&key=sxlJVDjS3fpwukDv5sbNVQ%3D%3D&feed=rss">reported</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Darwin council will use Chinese-inspired surveillance technology to gather data on what people are doing on their phones and to put up ‘virtual fences’ that will instantly trigger an alert if crossed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That is correct. This technology can track a smart phone. It can also, potentially, identify the user. Darwin City’s general manager for innovation, growth and development services, Josh Sattler, <a href="http://ntnews.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx?issue=66962019041500000000001001&page=5&article=df65383d-2ea2-4913-8107-1e06398d0183&key=sxlJVDjS3fpwukDv5sbNVQ%3D%3D&feed=rss">told the NT News</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ll be getting sent an alarm saying, ‘There’s a person in this area that you’ve put a virtual fence around.’ […] Boom, an alert goes out to whatever authority, whether it’s us or police, to say ‘look at camera 5’. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>That equates to real-time tracking of a private citizen by law enforcement and local council. And this in a free and democratic country.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275813/original/file-20190522-187157-sma8os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275813/original/file-20190522-187157-sma8os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275813/original/file-20190522-187157-sma8os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275813/original/file-20190522-187157-sma8os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275813/original/file-20190522-187157-sma8os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275813/original/file-20190522-187157-sma8os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275813/original/file-20190522-187157-sma8os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275813/original/file-20190522-187157-sma8os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This NT Police image shows CCTV locations in central Darwin. Between camera and mobile phone surveillance, authorities are now capable of real-time tracking of a private citizen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pfes.nt.gov.au/Police/Community-safety/CCTV.aspx">NT Police</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is it smart for the public to be so trusting?</h2>
<p>The Encryption Act takes on a different tint when looked at through this lens. Law enforcement and intelligence organisations have been empowered by law to invade your privacy and protected by law from you knowing that they have done so. </p>
<p>Such data can be used to place restrictions on free movement, a hard limit placed on a universal human right. Such data may also be sold to third parties, either in exchange for deals with government or to boost city coffers. The potential for abuse and the lack of safeguards for Australian citizens are staggering. </p>
<p>The public are told to place angelic trust in the honesty of government agencies, agencies that by and large regulate themselves. There is <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-data-access-bill-shows-we-need-to-get-serious-about-privacy-with-independent-oversight-of-the-law-101378">toothless public oversight </a>by groups like the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, which are all too often hamstrung by a culture of silence. </p>
<p>But, remember, if you’ve got nothing to hide you don’t need to be afraid! After all, it’s only a smart city Wi-Fi program for better street lights. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-accept-government-surveillance-for-now-110789">Australians accept government surveillance, for now</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The City of Darwin and City of Palmerston have also <a href="https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/attachments/cod_annualreport_2017-18_interactive.pdf">bought five new high-definition mobile CCTV units</a> with A$635,000 in funding from the Australian government’s Safer Communities Fund. Northern Territory Police will deploy these across both municipalities. The camera systems will be used to police “crime and anti-social behaviour” and to “protect organisations that may face security risks”. </p>
<p>Remember the city of the future is a safer and more vibrant space. And, if you want to be in it, you will be watched both online and offline, wherever you go. All the time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Rogers is affiliated with the volunteer group Civil Liberties Australia, and the professional associations the Australian Sociological Association (TASA) and the International Sociological Association (TASA).</span></em></p>Darwin is one of the aspiring ‘smart cities’ that is adopting Chinese technology that can identify and track individuals. Add changes in Australian law, and we have the makings of a surveillance state.Peter Rogers, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Law, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1158412019-05-08T02:11:23Z2019-05-08T02:11:23ZBig brother is watching: how new technologies are changing police surveillance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271421/original/file-20190429-194600-g20n01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the Boston bombing case, police used CCTV footage to help identify the suspects.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/security-cctv-camera-surveillance-system-car-580035475?src=1OPGy5lhDWOw4UmnL30rgA-1-49">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When we think of surveillance, we tend to imagine traditional surveillance tools like <a href="https://aic.gov.au/publications/rip/rip40">CCTV systems run by local authorities</a>. The use of CCTV has certainly increased since I was a young constable on the Gold Coast in the early 1990s. From a <a href="http://news.cityofgoldcoast.com.au/media-releases/safety-camera-network-doubles-overnight">CCTV network</a> of 16 cameras when they were first introduced to the city precinct, the network has grown to more than 500 cameras today.</p>
<p>But surveillance is much more than just CCTV. It now includes things like private home or business security systems, <a href="https://theconversation.com/body-worn-cameras-will-help-reduce-police-use-of-force-but-the-problem-runs-much-deeper-94399">police body-worn cameras</a> (BWC) and the use of helicopters and drones. And we all have the capacity to conduct surveillance and gather evidence using the technology contained in our mobile phones.</p>
<p>These new technologies are changing the way police approach surveillance. Rather than using surveillance tools reactively to catch criminals caught in the act on camera, police are now proactively seeking out criminals in the process of offending and recording the evidence on the spot.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/turning-big-brother-surveillance-into-a-helping-hand-to-the-homeless-104851">Turning 'big brother' surveillance into a helping hand to the homeless</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>CCTV helps solve crime, not prevent it</h2>
<p>Most studies show that <a href="https://aic.gov.au/publications/crm/crm018">CCTV by itself does not necessarily prevent crime</a>, but it does assist in responding to and solving crime. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/boston-bombing-desperately-seeking-faces-in-the-crowd-13617">Boston bombing case</a>, police used footage and images from state, public and private sources to identify the suspects. CCTV is also proving crucial in identifying the bombers who staged the recent coordinated attacks in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-23/sri-lanka-warning-could-the-government-have-done-more/11037394">Sri Lanka</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ED6-OPENVGg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">CCTV footage of one of the alleged bombers in Sri Lanka.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two studies released by the Australian Institute of Criminology last month focused on the use of CCTV by police. The <a href="https://aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi576">first showed</a> that where police requested and used CCTV footage, there was an increase in the rate of matters being solved. The second study showed <a href="https://aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi575">CCTV footage is highly valued by law enforcement personnel</a>, with 90% of investigators using the footage when it was available. Two-thirds were able to use it for the reason they had requested it.</p>
<h2>New tools, new capabilities</h2>
<p>We are now seeing a move from reactive surveillance to proactive surveillance. </p>
<p>Police body worn cameras (<a href="https://theconversation.com/cameras-on-cops-the-jurys-still-out-35644">BWCs</a>) are an example of this. Every police service in Australia is now using BWCs. Rather than just recording a criminal event by chance, BWCs enable police to actively seek out those committing offences, and record the evidence against such offenders. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sWEZ7X4zcTE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">SA Police rolls out body worn video cameras.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Queensland Police <a href="https://www.police.qld.gov.au/programs/bodyworncamera.htm">requires its officers to record</a> whenever the officer is acting in the performance of his or her duties. The device must be recording prior to, and during, the exercising of a police power or applying a use of force. </p>
<p>This requirement can be problematic since the officer must physically start the recording. In the shooting matter of Justine Damond in the United States, officers were criticised for having their recording devices <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-18/justine-damond-why-was-mohamed-noors-body-cam-off/8721098">turned off during the shooting</a>.</p>
<p>Some services have attempted to deal with this issue, such as <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/wa-police-body-cameras-to-automatically-record-when-gun-is-drawn-in-australian-first-ng-b881142958z">Western Australia Police</a> for instance, by having the BWC automatically begin recording when an officer draws their firearm.</p>
<p>Even traditional CCTV is becoming proactive with the introduction of <a href="http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/community/safety-camera-network-6318.html">mobile CCTV cameras</a> that can be moved as required to areas of community concern.</p>
<p>Many police services are <a href="https://www.thedrive.com/aerial/15092/drones-in-law-enforcement-how-where-and-when-theyre-used">using drones</a> for tasks such as crowd management, surveillance and target acquisition. Queensland and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-19/victoria-police-new-anti-terrorism-bid/10280484">Victoria</a> are just are two states that are committed to the use of drones for policing purposes. In 2017, <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/crime-and-justice/drones-become-integral-part-of-queensland-police-operations/news-story/cd2cb6b8812c381b7a23278911f9837f">Queensland Police</a> had a fleet of ten drones.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-artificial-intelligence-systems-could-threaten-democracy-109698">How artificial intelligence systems could threaten democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Facial recognition enables ‘predictive policing’</h2>
<p>Facial recognition software was once the thing of Hollywood movies like Mission Impossible. It’s now a reality, with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-face-it-well-be-no-safer-with-a-national-facial-recognition-database-85179">agreeing to share biometric data</a>, such as drivers licence details and passport photos, between government agencies. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-19/qldrefuse-to-say-how-it-will-use-new-facial-recognition-software/9677156">Facial recognition software</a> was used by police during 2018 Commonwealth games in Queensland. And the Queensland government has indicated police will continue to use facial recognition tools – although confusion surrounds when or how it will be deployed. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-06/australias-biggest-facial-recognition-roll-out-rushed/11077350">ABC has reported </a> that the facial recognition system was so rushed that it lacked the data to operate effectively during the Commonwealth Games.</p>
<p>Facial recognition adds a predictive policing capability to traditional CCTV systems. In essence, predictive policing or pre-crime policing is an attempt by law enforcement to disrupt criminal activity by the early identification of criminal threats. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-02-10/anti-arson-program-working-says-rann/290456">Operation Nomad</a> saw a South Australian police visiting suspected and convicted arsonists when automated number plate recognition alerted them to suspects driving in fire danger zones. The operation was credited with the reduction of bushfire related arson.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Fictional eye lens in Mission Impossible 4: Ghost protocol.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/you-may-be-sick-of-worrying-about-online-privacy-but-surveillance-apathy-is-also-a-problem-86474">You may be sick of worrying about online privacy, but 'surveillance apathy' is also a problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Keeping a watch on big brother</h2>
<p>Surveillance is changing from being static, fixed and reactive to being flexible and proactive. The enhanced capabilities helps law enforcement fight crime, rather than just solve it. </p>
<p>The Coalition government promised A$20 million to increase the <a href="https://www.news.com.au/video/id-5348771529001-6031174767001/coalition-to-increase-number-of-cctv-cameras-across-the-country">number of CCTV cameras across the country</a>. Under the proposal, up to 2,600 cameras would be installed at 500 “crime hot spots”.</p>
<p>While this is a largely positive move, we must ensure that there is accountability and transparency in the use of these technologies, and ensure they serve the purposes for which they were intended. An effective governance regime is essential to instill public confidence in the use of these technologies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115841/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Goldsworthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>These days surveillance isn’t just CCTV. Police now have access to body cams, drones and facial recognition systems – and it’s helping police not only solve crime, but prevent it too.Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/974182018-06-04T13:49:48Z2018-06-04T13:49:48ZHow CCTV surveillance poses a threat to privacy in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220930/original/file-20180530-120505-j9xs87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">CCTV cameras are becoming a “normal” feature of public life, tracking peoples’ movements as a matter of course.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Locational privacy is a fairly new and novel aspect of privacy rights. It refers to the right of people to move about freely, without having their movements tracked. </p>
<p>But as CCTV cameras become more widespread in public spaces for use in a range of functions such as crime-fighting, it’s becoming more difficult for people to protect this kind of privacy in public spaces.</p>
<p>The cameras, linked to a display monitors, can be used to monitor human movements in particular spaces, including streets and shopping centres. A video recorder can also be added to record activities. But, the problem with CCTV is always the human capacity to process the information gleaned from the cameras. The cameras can only film fixed areas. Unless they are ubiquitous, they cannot be used to track movements.</p>
<p>The need for human monitoring places a natural limit on the analysis of camera footage. But, with digital tools of analysis, this is changing. When linked to a computer loaded with software capable of algorithmic analysis, huge amounts of footage can be analysed. These camera based surveillance systems can capture information about a person’s physical location. Some may only provide real time information, while others may record information for further analysis.</p>
<p>But governments of a more authoritarian bent can misuse this information to establish people’s movements, political activities and associations. People may not participate as robustly in democratic life as they would if they feel that they are being watched, and their movements tracked.</p>
<p>Invasive forms of data analysis such as number plate and facial recognition are being introduced in South African cities without any public debate about the implications for privacy in public spaces. Likewise, there’s no debate about about their implications for the ability of citizens to practice a range of rights in these spaces, such as the right to assemble.</p>
<h2>Ubiquity</h2>
<p>Increasingly, CCTV cameras are becoming a “normal” feature of public life, tracking peoples’ movements as a matter of course. Video analysis tools also allow for more sophisticated analyses of footage. </p>
<p>Computer analysis enables CCTV to be turned into “smart dataveillance” devices (that conduct surveillance through the collection and computerised analysis of data), which make individuals and their movements more visible to the state. These are meant to assist in “smart” policing, whereby police use data tools to enhance the effectiveness of policing.</p>
<p>Another example is facial recognition technologies. These can be used to identify a particular person from a facial database. Potentially, these technologies can, and are, being used to identify people engaging in politically activities, such as protests. This triggers concerns that governments may be tempted to use them for anti-democratic purposes. </p>
<p>South Africa has followed international trends in street-level surveillance and embraced technologies whose affect on crime fighting and intelligence work are, at best, unclear and contested. International academic <a href="https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203814949.ch3_2_c">research</a> points to CCTV systems being most effective in specific contexts, such as parking lots, and least effective in open spaces.</p>
<p>Other kinds of crime such as white collar crime and domestic crime, are not recorded by street cameras, which perpetuates an ideology of crime being street crime perpetrated by strangers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Eyes-Everywhere-The-Global-Growth-of-Camera-Surveillance/Doyle-Lippert-Lyon/p/book/9780415696555">Critics</a> have also blamed the use of CCTV systems for displacing crime, rather than deterring it. Where reductions in crime levels have taken place because of CCTV, they were localised and often not statistically significant.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220939/original/file-20180530-120487-1yxlckl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A security officers monitoring activity captured on CCTV.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The difficulties of assessing the impacts of CCTV on crime is made harder by the fact that local authorities have not been undertaking independent impact assessments (including on privacy). This means that the public is forced to rely on the state’s version of events, which for public relations purposes, emphasises the positive impacts. Yet, in Cape Town in 2015 for instance, the police were criticised for making only 107 arrests following 2640 criminal incidents <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/technology/111529/sa-police-not-using-cctv-footage-to-catch-criminals-da/">caught on camera</a>.</p>
<p>In 2016, the City of Johannesburg <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2016/06/26/City-of-JHB-installs-smart-cameras-around-city">announced</a> that it was rolling out smart CCTV cameras complete, with automatic number plate and facial recognition technologies, as part of its <a href="http://www.gautengfilm.org.za/news/news-archive/2008/december-2008/360-making-the-inner-city-safer-a-city-of-joburg-initiative">‘safe cities’ initiative</a>. </p>
<p>Yet at the time of writing, the City had enacted no requirement for signage at the entrance to an area under CCTV surveillance – a key privacy protection requirement. The City was in the process of finalising a policy on the roll-out of CCTVs, coupled with a master plan, but these were still at draft stage, pointing to the fact that the technology had run ahead of the policy.</p>
<p>CCTV rollouts tend to <a href="http://www.saflii.org/khayelitshacommissionreport.pdf">“follow the money”</a>. In other words, they tend to follow patterns of wealth in the major metropolitan cities in South Africa. This contributes to the <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/209473/joburg-is-looking-at-making-big-changes-to-boomed-suburbs/">enclosure of city spaces</a> by private capital, and consequently to the privatisation of public spaces and the reproduction of <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094215618595">spacial inequalities</a>.</p>
<p>It’s not at all clear if the growing capacity of local governments to collect street-level data on peoples’ movements is making a substantial contribution to policing, as the police do not use this data routinely.</p>
<h2>The risk of dumbing down policing</h2>
<p>Technology is being used as a silver bullet for policing of public spaces, when more basic interventions may be more appropriate (such as improving investigative techniques), risks dumbing down policing. Yet, at the same time, the regulation of CCTV for its impacts on privacy is lagging behind the actual rollout of the technology.</p>
<p>Data-driven surveillance tools, such as smart CCTV, consistently over promise but under deliver in fighting crime. Yet, governments are adept at creating panic about crime to obscure these failings. People’s fear of crime, and their need to feel protected from it, should not stop them from asking the critical questions that need to be asked. </p>
<p><em>This is an edited excerpt from the author’s latest book, <a href="https://witspress.co.za/catalogue/stopping-the-spies/">Stopping the Spies: Constructing and Resisting the Surveillance State</a>, published by Wits University Press.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Duncan receives funding from the Open Society Foundation for South Africa. She is affiliated with the Media Policy and Democracy Project and the Right 2 Know Campaign. </span></em></p>As CCTV cameras become more widespread, it’s becoming more difficult for people to protect their locational privacy in public.Jane Duncan, Professor and head of the Department of Journalism, Film and Television, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/924492018-03-06T13:15:44Z2018-03-06T13:15:44ZWhat ‘blackface’ tells us about China’s patronising attitude towards Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208457/original/file-20180301-152569-1ppwk0z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A skit on China's English language TV station CCTV's Spring Festival Gala featuring 'blackface' actors has gone viral.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You could compile a <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1535574/racist-maid-advert-draws-anger-hong-kong">long list</a> of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-blackface-and-brownface-offend-65881">‘blackfaces’</a> in East Asian media over the <a href="https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2018/02/17/cctv-toothpaste-short-history-blackface-china">last decade</a>. But the latest version this Euro-American racist archetype in Chinese media is by far the most <a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-media-struggles-to-overcome-stereotypes-of-africa-92362?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitterbutton">controversial</a> – a skit on China’s English language TV station CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala featuring ‘blackface’ actors. Like the others on the <a href="https://qz.com/1101699/africans-in-china-are-infuriated-over-a-museum-exhibit-comparing-africans-to-animals/">growing list</a> of racist incidents, this one has also <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-washing-powder-afrophobia-and-racism-in-china-60274">gone viral</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond the ‘blackface’, the skit’s story is rather simple but still problematic. Carrie, an 18-year-old Kenyan stewardess trainee, asks her Chinese teacher to pass as her boyfriend to avoid a blind date organised by her mother. Carrie doesn’t want to get married yet. She wants to work and then go to China to study.</p>
<p>In the skit’s resolution, Carrie confesses to her mother and explains her desire to go to China. It becomes clear that she sees China as a way to escape tradition (and her mother’s traditional views on marriage). </p>
<p>Carrie’s mother then starts praising China’s role in Africa and agrees to Carrie’s plans, shouting </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I love the Chinese! I love China!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The skit was intended to highlight the positive aspects of China-Africa relations. Instead, it presented a narrative in which China is seen as a solution to Africa’s backwardness. </p>
<h2>China, the saviour</h2>
<p>This episode echoes the broadcast of a similar story featured on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxr99UDYAug">‘If You Are the One’</a> – a highly popular Chinese TV dating show a few years ago. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://africansinchina.net/2013/08/09/%E9%9D%9E%E8%AF%9A%E5%8B%BF%E6%89%B0-africans-in-china-in-chinese-media-you-are-the-one/">analysis</a> of the show at the time I explained how <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxr99UDYAug">Xiao De</a> (a participant from Guinea Bissau) was portrayed as a free-spirited girl, trapped by tradition. Xiao De saw going to China as a way to escape her fate (an arranged marriage), study, and become independent. </p>
<p>In the dating show, Xiao De is looking to marry a Chinese man. As with Carrie, moving to China and marrying a Chinese is her way of escaping tradition and entering modernity — a Chinese version of it. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/208046/original/file-20180227-36700-1bmugmd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Xiao De in her last appearance in ‘If You Are the One’</span>
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<p>These skits reproduce a narrative that is representative of China’s general approach to Africa. Both official and popular Chinese narratives about Africa consistently try to construct an image of the continent as China’s <a href="https://www.google.co.za/search?id%3D%22208045%22+align%3D%22centre%22+caption%3D%22Paolo+Uccello%27s+depiction+of+Saint+George+and+the+dragon,+c.+1470,+a+classic+image+of+a+damsel+in+distress.%22+/%3E&rlz=1C1NHXL_enZA711ZA711&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ibanAKDQ6f1mmM%253A%252C_tmjTF3Otcm0kM%252C_&usg=__DUltEDS4-tLDsOpeS7-Bpx49-6o%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-zo_R2srZAhVEDcAKHbipC1IQ9QEILDAC#imgrc=ibanAKDQ6f1mmM:">‘damsel in distress’</a>. </p>
<p>Africa is depicted as a young and beautiful woman who needs to be saved by a male hero. In the end, the woman usually marries her rescuer. The narrative is also always gendered – China is portrayed as the (modern) male hero and Africa the princess in jeopardy. </p>
<p>Multiple versions of this have been repeated over the decades. In short, behind the Gala’s ‘blackface’ lies a consistent top-down, ego-boosting effort to see and represent China as a way for Africa to enter modernity. </p>
<h2>Africa as the past, China as the future</h2>
<p>The Spring Festival Gala is a programme full of skits. While the skits are normally comedic, they generally intend to inform and educate the audience about a particular topic, from military affairs and everyday life. More <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2018/02/racism-and-the-belt-and-road-in-cctvs-spring-festival-gala/">controversially</a>, they also sometimes focus on other cultures. </p>
<p>The ‘blackface’ skit was the first in the Gala’s history to portray China-Africa relations. If it’s intention was to educate its viewers about the complexities and realities of contemporary sub-Saharan life, it failed miserably. For example, the skit’s story is supposedly set in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, but all you can see in the background is a savannah. There are in fact no savannah’s in site in modern-day Nairobi.</p>
<p>Representing ‘Africa as the past’ means associating ideas about Africa strictly with nature and tradition. </p>
<p>But stereotypical views about Africa aren’t only evident in China’s media — they pervade everyday life in China, a fact that African students who have lived in China can attest to.</p>
<p>The CCTV skit was merely catering to age-old stereotypes held by many ordinary Chinese people. </p>
<p>Naivety and ignorance are often cited as justifications for this stereotyping. As one argument has it, ordinary Chinese only reproduce what is offered to them by Hollywood.</p>
<p>This is to some extent true. But, there is evidence from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmRNfonkdug">museum exhibitions</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=92&v=uV1IRVWnQGA">film festivals</a> that point in another direction. Even people in positions of power in China seem to hold these views. Blaming Hollywood seems a poor defence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberto Castillo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>China’s offensive ‘blackface’ skit intended to highlight the positive aspects of China-Africa relations, has done the opposite.Roberto Castillo, Assistant Professor in Cultural Studies, Lingnan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/851792017-10-06T02:49:25Z2017-10-06T02:49:25ZLet’s face it, we’ll be no safer with a national facial recognition database<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189098/original/file-20171006-9753-1ww25ll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many more faces to be added to a national database, but will it make us any safer?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock copy/Andrey_Popov</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A commitment to share the biometric data of most Australians – including your driving licence photo – agreed at Thursday’s Council of Australian Governments (<a href="https://www.coag.gov.au">COAG</a>) meeting will result in a further erosion of our privacy.</p>
<p>That sharing is not necessary. It will be costly. But will it save us from terrorism? Not all, although it will give people a false sense of comfort. </p>
<p>Importantly, it will allow politicians and officials to show that they are doing something, in a climate where a hunt for headlines demands the appearance of action.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/leaders-agree-to-hand-over-driver-licence-data-as-part-of-coag-counter-terror-package-85251">Leaders agree to hand over driver licence data as part of COAG counter-terror package</a>
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<h2>Your biometric data</h2>
<p>Biometric data used in fingerprint and facial recognition systems is indelible. It can be used in authoritative identity registers, featured on identity documents such as passports and driver licences. </p>
<p>It can be automatically <a href="http://unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/04-mannsmith-advance-access-final.pdf">matched</a> with data collected from devices located in airports, bus and train stations, retail malls, court buildings, prisons, sports facilities and anywhere else we could park a networked camera.</p>
<p>Australia’s state and territory governments have built large biometric databases through registration of people as drivers – every licence has a photograph of the driver. The national government has built large databases through registration for <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa/Biom">passports</a>, aviation/maritime <a href="http://barnoldlaw.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/identity-privacy-and-aviation-security.html">security</a> and other purposes.</p>
<p>Irrespective of your consent to uses beyond those for which the picture was taken, the governments now have a biometric image of most Australians, and the ability to search the images.</p>
<p>COAG <a href="https://www.coag.gov.au/meeting-outcomes/special-meeting-council-australian-governments-counter-terrorism-communique">announced</a> that the governments will share that data in the name of security. </p>
<h2>Sharing data with who?</h2>
<p>Details of the sharing are very unclear. This means we cannot evaluate indications that images will be captured in both <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/we-target-terrorists,-absolutely:-malcolm-turnbull/9013620">public and private places</a>. For example, in <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/03/australian_pm_malcolm_turnbull_hints_at_surveillance_expansion/">retail malls</a> and libraries or art galleries – soft targets for terrorism – rather than in streets and secure buildings such as Parliament House. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/facial-recognition-is-not-mass-surveillance-turnbull/9020418">responded</a> to initial criticism by clarifying that matching will not involve “live” CCTV.</p>
<p>But the history of Australian surveillance law has been a matter of creep, with step-by-step expansion of what might initially have been an innocuous development. When will law enforcement agencies persuade their ministers to include live public or private CCTV for image matching?</p>
<p>We cannot tell which officials will be accessing the data and what safeguards will be established to prevent misuse. Uncertainty about safeguards is worrying, given the history of police and other officials inappropriately <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/crime-and-justice/police-file-of-netball-star-laura-geitz-allegedly-hacked/news-story/0076d999f36106167c97bdf446821baf">accessing</a> law enforcement databases on behalf of criminals or to <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/former-afp-agent-pleads-guilty-to-using-restricted-police-system-to-stalk-exgirlfriend-20150603-ghfk7r.html">stalk</a> a former partner.</p>
<p>The sharing occurs in a nation where Commonwealth, state and territory privacy law is inconsistent. That law is weakly enforced, in part because watchdogs such as the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (<a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/">OAIC</a>) are <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLJ/2015/43.html">under-resourced</a>, threatened with <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview201617/Office-AIC">closure</a> or have <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/78938-victoria-an-information-policy-backwater-privacy-commission-abolition-bill-passes/">clashed</a> with senior politicians.</p>
<p>Australia does not have a coherent enforceable right to privacy. Instead we have a threadbare patchwork of law (including an absence of a discrete privacy statute in several jurisdictions). </p>
<p>The new arrangement has been foreshadowed by governments over several years. It can be expected to creep, further eroding privacy and treating all citizens as suspects. </p>
<p>Software and hardware providers will be delighted: there’s money to be made by catering to our fears. But we should be asking some hard questions about the regime and questioning <a href="https://www.coag.gov.au/node/339">COAG’s statement</a>.</p>
<h2>Let’s avoid a privacy car crash</h2>
<p>Will sharing and expansion of the biometric network – a camera near every important building, many cameras on every important road – save us from terrorism? The answer is a resounding no. Biometrics, for example, seems unlikely to have saved people from the Las Vegas <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-03/las-vegas-shooting3a-lives-changed-forever/9009768">shooter</a>.</p>
<p>Will sharing be cost effective? None of the governments have a great track record with major systems integration. The landscape is littered with projects that went over budget, didn’t arrive on time or were quietly killed off. </p>
<p>Think the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/senate-committee-on-abs-censusfail-still-points-to-basic-failures-on-ibms-part-67672">Census</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/errors-in-centrelinks-debt-recovery-system-were-inevitable-as-in-all-complex-systems-71409">Centrelink</a> problems, and the billion dollar bust up known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-name-and-opt-out-policy-wont-save-the-personal-health-record-41601">Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record</a>.</p>
<p>It won’t be improved by a new <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-kill-the-australian-identity-card-zombie-once-and-for-all-71328">national ID card</a> to fix the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/06/medicare-data-breach-tax-office-suspends-cards-as-id-before-u-turn">Medicare</a> problem.</p>
<p>Is the sharing proportionate? One answer is to look at experience in India, where the Supreme Court has comprehensively <a href="http://barnoldlaw.blogspot.com.au/2017/08/aadhaar.html">damned</a> that nation’s ambitious <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2800835">Aadhaar</a> biometric scheme that was meant to solve security, welfare and other problems.</p>
<p>The Court – consistent with decisions in other parts of the world – condemned the scheme as grossly disproportionate: a disregard of privacy and of the dignity of every citizen.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/coag-meeting-on-counter-terrorism-was-more-about-politics-than-practice-85249">COAG meeting on counter-terrorism was more about politics than practice</a>
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<p>Is sharing likely to result in harms, particularly as the biometric network grows and grows? The answer again is yes. One harm, disregarded by our opportunistic politicians, is that all Australians and all visitors will be regarded as suspects.</p>
<p>Much of the data for matching will be muddy – some <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rip/1-10/08/04.html">street cameras</a>, for example, are <a href="http://www.securitynewsdesk.com/safeguarding-your-surveillance-system-an-introduction-to-the-siqura-camera-health-check/">fine resting places for pigeons</a> – and of little value. </p>
<p>As with the mandatory metadata retention scheme, the more data (and more cameras) we have the bigger trove of indelible information for hackers. Do not expect the OAIC or weak state privacy watchdogs (which in some jurisdictions do not exist) to come to the rescue.</p>
<p>As a society we should demand meaningful consultation about official schemes that erode our rights. We should engage in critical thinking rather than relying on headlines that reflect political opportunism and institutional self-interest. </p>
<p>The incoherent explanation and clarifications should concern everyone, irrespective of whether they have <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/politics/new-counterterror-laws-wont-strengthen-existing-measures-legal-expert/news-story/84bd45a9b568b9d3b7e35406af21c2e8">chosen to be on Facebook</a> – and even if they have nothing to hide and will never be mistaken for someone else.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85179/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Baer Arnold teaches privacy, data protection and secrecy law. He is a director of the Australian Privacy Foundation. </span></em></p>The COAG agreement to share our biometric data - including some photo ID - is an erosion of our privacy and will give people a false sense of comfort.Bruce Baer Arnold, Assistant Professor, School of Law, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/782502017-06-20T00:50:25Z2017-06-20T00:50:25ZWe need to be cautious when assuming CCTV will prevent family violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170914/original/file-20170525-31801-ngtgre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A reliance on security infrastructure to resolve embedded social problems may be misguided.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year’s Victorian state budget included a A$1.9 billion package to tackle family violence. Part of this was a statewide <a href="http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/keeping-women-and-children-safe/">Personal Safety Initiative</a>, which expands a trial of installing technology – such as CCTV, personal alarms and security doors – in the homes of at-risk women.</p>
<p>The Victorian government is to be commended for recognising that support for victims should be increased. However, a reliance on security infrastructure to resolve embedded social problems may be misguided. </p>
<p>In May, Sydney man Max Spencer was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-22/man-pleads-not-guilty-to-breaching-avo/8546574">arrested and charged</a> with breaching an apprehended violence order following the death of his girlfriend, Hayley Mcclenahan-Ernst. The circumstances of her death are still being treated as suspicious. </p>
<p>Spencer pleaded not guilty to breaching the order. CCTV footage later emerged, and <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/pregnant-woman-filmed-kissing-partner-hours-before-her-death/news-story/0b6fcbcc2ac95231f1f55205d8599782">has been widely circulated</a>, of the couple kissing and holding hands in the hours before her death. </p>
<p>Such footage will likely become significant if Spencer maintains his not-guilty plea to any charges. Without speculating further on this case, key issues regarding the use of CCTV in responses to family violence must be reconsidered. </p>
<h2>How CCTV and other cameras may be used</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/05/12/family-violence-costs-53b-year-vic">recent report estimated</a> more than 160,000 people experienced family violence in Victoria in 2015-16. This cost the state A$5.3 billion in 2015-16. $2.6 billion of this stemmed from individuals’ pain, suffering, physical and psychological health impacts, and loss of income.</p>
<p>In this context, the $17 million announced for the installation of technology like CCTV seems relatively minor. </p>
<p>Following a “<a href="https://www.rcfv.com.au/MediaLibraries/RCFamilyViolence/Statements/WIT-0079-001-0001-Schultze-9.pdf">successful</a>” pilot program, CCTV installed in victims’ homes was commended for reducing intervention order breaches, and for working as evidence in court to demonstrate when breaches did occur. </p>
<p>Participants in the trial also said they felt safer in their home with CCTV. This is significant, particularly as family violence is a <a href="http://www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au/index.php/42-news/68-no-excuse-4-dfv">key driver of homelessness</a>. The UK has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6015/1697793.pdf">implemented similar measures</a>.</p>
<p>Visual evidence has a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00450610802537960?journalCode=tajf20&">lot of currency</a> in criminal and civil proceedings. Victoria Police <a href="http://www.vic.gov.au/familyviolence/recommendations/recommendation-details.html?recommendation_id=199">is trialling</a> body-worn cameras when attending family violence incidents for this reason. CCTV may also be useful in <a href="http://www.lawreform.vic.gov.au/content/review-family-violence-laws-recommendations">courtroom settings</a> to reduce the need for a victim to encounter their offender. </p>
<p>While technology may be used well in these instances, the expansion of such programs necessitates a closer consideration of risks. </p>
<h2>Importance of introducing safeguards</h2>
<p>While short-term disruption can occur, CCTV’s long-term effectiveness in deterring criminal behaviour is still <a href="http://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/issue/view/Relaunch">inconclusive and disputed internationally</a>. </p>
<p>Because CCTV does not tackle the underlying causes of violence, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07418825.2016.1194449">displacement of crime</a> also often follows. In the context of family violence, this means that while a victim may be temporarily safe in her home, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-18/leila-alavi-husband-stabbed-hairdresser-after-earlier-threats/7762158">leaving for work</a> – for example – may become riskier. This might mean new forms of isolation.</p>
<p>How CCTV is positioned around the property is also significant. If it is only facing outside, then a camera can misinterpret the conditions in which someone enters the home. </p>
<p>Family violence can be coercive in more ways than sexual and physical aggression. <a href="https://theconversation.com/tackling-economic-abuse-of-women-must-be-part-of-our-domestic-violence-response-48376">Economic</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2015/jun/02/domestic-violence-five-women-tell-their-stories-of-leaving-the-most-dangerous-time">psychological</a> violence is prevalent, and these behaviours will not be visible to a camera. CCTV may not be able to capture subtle forms of manipulation, or, say, threats to self-harm.</p>
<p>Family violence is also complex and traumatic for victims. Feelings of shame or a belief that it “might get better” can also come into the mix. </p>
<p>If footage emerges of a victim talking to, engaging with or inviting in a perpetrator, this may be used against a victim to shift blame and <a href="https://www.ourwatch.org.au/Understanding-Violence/Myths-about-violence">perpetuate myths</a>. CCTV footage used as evidence must be properly safeguarded to prevent this.</p>
<p>The idea of cameras placed inside the home also has extreme implications for proportionality and privacy. </p>
<p>Finally, CCTV cameras used in the Victorian trial were connected to static internet addresses. Victims were not provided direct access – instead, they were given an application on their phone to check the cameras before going outside or coming home. </p>
<p>But, for a security device, CCTV cameras are notorious for their poor security. Many thousands <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/3089346/security/thousands-of-hacked-cctv-devices-used-in-ddos-attacks.html">have been hacked</a> in one go. Before installing any sort of surveillance device into the homes of thousands of vulnerable families, strict cyber-security measures need to be adhered to and properly evaluated. </p>
<h2>Where we should focus our attention</h2>
<p>Like an apprehended violence order, the installation of CCTV cameras in the most extreme cases of family violence may be beneficial in <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/avos-are-not-a-miracle-cure-but-a-safety-net-for-victims-of-violence-and-harassment-20150120-12uc12.html">temporarily disrupting</a> threat of physical abuse. However, it is not likely to have meaningful long-term effects. Nor will it work at a statewide level.</p>
<p>Instead, the Victorian government should be encouraged to continue leading its investment in the integration of social and health services, and to focus on <a href="http://www.vic.gov.au/familyviolence.html">shifting attitudes</a> as a better prevention strategy. </p>
<p>To best support this, media outlets have an ethical duty in focusing on these policies, and must therefore consider the implications of needlessly circulating CCTV images. Future court proceedings and future public engagement with the causes – and best preventions – of family violence depend on this. </p>
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<p><em>The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitlin Overington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Family violence will not always be ‘obvious’ to CCTV. Therefore measures must be put in place to ensure that footage cannot be used against victims should circumstances of violence be challenged.Caitlin Overington, PhD Candidate in Criminology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/742712017-03-14T14:54:55Z2017-03-14T14:54:55ZIf surveillance cameras are to be kept in line, the rules will have to keep pace with technology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160707/original/image-20170314-10724-1e3fqhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/camera-cameras-traffic-watching-19223/">PublicDomainImages</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been said that Britain has more surveillance cameras than any other country in the world. This proliferation of CCTV cameras led the government to establish a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/surveillance-camera-commissioner">surveillance camera commissioner</a> responsible for overseeing their governance – the only country in the world to do so. In another first, the commissioner has now released a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-surveillance-camera-strategy-for-england-and-wales">national strategy for England and Wales</a> to set out how CCTV should be operated and to ensure that cameras are used in the public interest. </p>
<p>The growing prevalence of cameras and greater understanding of the many ways in which we are surveilled has led many – <a href="https://www.rt.com/uk/226579-cctv-britain-surveillance-state/">including the current commissioner, Tony Porter</a>, to voice concern that Britain is “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/aug/16/britishidentity.freedomofinformation">sleepwalking into a surveillance state</a>”. This raises critical questions about whether we can be confident that all these cameras are being used in a way the public would approve of – and if not, whether regulation can force CCTV operators into line.</p>
<p>It’s not just the sheer number of cameras that is of concern. Deployed by many public sector and private organisations in a fragmented and piecemeal manner over the last 20 years, different systems offer vastly different technical capabilities and are used in different ways. There is a lack of standardisation and limited public awareness about what CCTV cameras are capable of and what they are used for. This is particularly important given developments in facial recognition and movement tracking technology. </p>
<p>There are also concerns about the misuse of cameras, for example camera operators abusing their position for <a href="http://www.24housing.co.uk/news/peeping-tom-council-workers-watched-woman-undressing-for-bath/">voyeurism</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/mar/21/arts.ukcrime">commercial gain</a>. Or cameras that do <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/aug/17/why-cctv-does-not-deter-crime/">little to deter crime</a>, where image quality was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/6088086/Worthless-CCTV-camera-footage-is-not-good-enough-to-fight-crime-leading-QC-warns.html">too poor for use in court</a>, or even instances where cameras that could have provided vital footage were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/16/cctv-cameras-being-switched-off-to-save-money-watchdog-warns">switched off to save money</a>. With advances in digital technology, such as face recognition, there are also issues about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/14/public-faces-mass-invasion-of-privacy-as-big-data-and-surveillance-merge">privacy, data sharing and profiling</a> and the possible “chilling effect” that this will have on society.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160708/original/image-20170314-10735-13f524o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160708/original/image-20170314-10735-13f524o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160708/original/image-20170314-10735-13f524o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160708/original/image-20170314-10735-13f524o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160708/original/image-20170314-10735-13f524o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160708/original/image-20170314-10735-13f524o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160708/original/image-20170314-10735-13f524o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160708/original/image-20170314-10735-13f524o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Body-worn cameras are on the rise among those in public services.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/westmidlandspolice/14791866078">West Midlands Police</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is plenty of anecdotal evidence demonstrating <a href="http://www.securitynewsdesk.com/cctv-enjoys-86-public-support-call-better-monitoring-information/">support for public cameras</a> used with the aim of detecting crime and ensuring public safety. But the point here is that in practice it’s impossible to look at a camera and know what is happening behind the lens, whether someone is watching, whether your image is being shared with other agencies, or even if the camera is switched on. This is important. As members of the public, we are the ones subjected to surveillance, it is our personal data and likeness captured and used by these systems, so we should be told for what and by whom. </p>
<p>It is the surveillance camera commissioner’s responsibility to ensure that surveillance cameras are operated in accordance with the law, reassuring the public that their use is in the best interests of society.</p>
<h2>A world first regulation</h2>
<p>The strategy encourages best practice in how organisations use cameras, such as standardised technical requirements to ensure footage is of sufficient quality for use as evidence in court, and training requirements and expected practices for camera operators, so the public can be confident in how the systems are used. It stresses compliance with the law, especially in relation to data processing, and promotes public engagement activities to ensure better public understanding of CCTV use. Another aspect emphasised is for organisations such as local authorities, the police, commercial CCTV installers, private sector bodies and regulators to work together to make better use of CCTV footage and camera networks.</p>
<p>By bringing together all the elements relating to camera surveillance in one coherent initiative, this could be the world’s most coherent camera governance regime – one that applies also to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-37008364">body-worn video cameras</a>, <a href="https://www.police.uk/information-and-advice/automatic-number-plate-recognition/">Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras</a>, and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-32431630">aerial drones</a>.</p>
<p>But the strategy has limitations. First, not all cameras are bound by the regulations – those in residential and commercial properties are not covered, nor those operated by the NHS. Such operators are asked to become “voluntary adopters” of the code. Second, there are questions over whether the commissioner has the power to enforce his regulations on providers, and what the consequences would be for failing to do so – there are no obvious penalties that can be imposed by the commissioner. Third, as there is also an information commissioner who has jurisdiction in this area and it’s not always clear who has primary authority relating to cameras regulation.</p>
<p>While the publication of the strategy demonstrates that there will be more concerted efforts to govern how CCTV is used in the future, we cannot ignore that at the same time technology is constantly moving on. We are likely to see a <a href="https://theconversation.com/body-cameras-coming-to-a-school-near-you-soon-72248">proliferation of body cameras worn by public servants</a> and surveillance cameras combined with sophisticated processing software that will allow <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trouble-with-facial-recognition-technology-in-the-real-world-69685">face recognition, people tracking, and even behaviour recognition</a>. </p>
<p>In the future, surveillance camera processes will become more opaque, more sophisticated, and potentially integrated with data from a variety of sources, including social media, meaning decisions about who to survey and who determines intensive surveillance will be determined by big data and algorithms. Any regulatory framework that does not or cannot keep up with the pace of change will soon become worthless.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor William Webster is an unpaid advisor to the Strategy Group responsible for shaping the development of the National Camera Strategy. He has a responsibility relating to the strand of work around citizen engagement.</span></em></p>After more than 20 years and millions of cameras, UK’s first attempt to regulate CCTV cameras may be too little too late.William Webster, Professor and Director, Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/714872017-01-30T03:06:52Z2017-01-30T03:06:52ZWho gets to see CCTV footage? The law favours the operators<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154165/original/image-20170125-10188-12prlcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who owns the digital data recorded and uploaded by CCTV operators?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/offshore-processing-centres-nauru-and-papua-new-guinea-contract-management">recent report</a>, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) detailed “significant shortcomings” in the management by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection of contracts for security and welfare services on Manus Island and Nauru.</p>
<p>One shortcoming identified by the ANAO was that video records and reports of incidents provided by the department and their service providers between 2013 and 2016 were not always able to be reconciled.</p>
<p>“There were records of incidents which noted that video existed of an incident, but no corresponding video,” the ANAO audit stated. Also, “there were gaps in the recording of incidents”.</p>
<p>According to the audit, Wilson Security held almost eight terabytes of digital records. But it provided only two terabytes of data to the ANAO. Its explanation was that “the majority of the footage was unrelated to incidents or investigations within the centre”.</p>
<p>It should be a matter of concern that the controller of digital data, when subjected to public scrutiny, can arrogate to itself the power to determine what to release and what to hold on to. But before <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-security-gags-on-media-force-us-to-trust-state-will-do-no-wrong-32103">exploring this potential weakness</a> in accountability, let me take a step back and examine the legal environment in which these issues arise.</p>
<h2>Who owns the digital data recorded and uploaded by CCTV operators?</h2>
<p>Unless there are contractual stipulations to the contrary, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cctv-who-can-watch-whom-under-the-law-63046">all footage belongs</a> to the organisation (public or private) that owns the equipment, along with anyone who by contract is specified to share that ownership.</p>
<p>Most often, a broader distribution of these images and data happens without any difficulty. Organisations (such as local councils) and private individuals who have any footage that will help police track down a suspect are usually only too willing to hand over that evidence. An example would be <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/what-bayley-did-in-jills-final-hours-20130313-2fzvo.html">tracing the movements</a> of assailants and their victims. </p>
<p>But when that footage is embarrassing to its owners, especially when the material becomes subject to private legal proceedings, accessibility tightens up considerably.</p>
<p>For example, in February 2006 rock band Powderfinger’s Ian Haug was ejected from Jupiters Casino and was injured in an ensuing scuffle. He <a href="http://www.news.com.au/news/star-guitarist-sues-bouncers/news-story/db50a36da85e2cfa2ddd2a6939bde4dd">sued the casino</a>, alleging that its security staff had <a href="http://www.sclqld.org.au/caselaw/QCA/2007/199">used excessive force</a> in causing his injuries. </p>
<p>To prepare the case against the casino, Haug’s solicitors sought CCTV footage from Jupiters. It refused, saying that the digital records were private. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/casino-sued-over-powderfinger-guitarists-ejection/2007/06/15/1181414512677.html">Queensland Court of Appeal agreed</a>. Any order that Jupiters hand over these records in such a case, it said, would compromise the casino’s proper functioning.</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.maddocks.com.au/uncategorized/responding-requests-access-cctv-footage/">in 2013</a> the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) granted access to CCTV footage recorded at the Caulfield racecourse to a person considering legal action against the police who had been deployed there. On balance, said the VCAT, such disclosure was not unreasonable so long as it was used solely for the purposes of legal action and was not more widely distributed.</p>
<h2>Public versus private</h2>
<p>What about footage that is filmed in a public facility? Again, the law engages in a balancing act. In <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VCAT/2012/241.html">Horrocks v Department of Justice</a>, the VCAT was asked by a prisoner to order the release of footage that, he alleged, captured an assault on him. The VCAT refused to make the order, citing the unreasonableness of making available, without restriction, a permanent record of the image and identity of the relevant correctional officers.</p>
<p>Government departments do not, however, always get their own way. The <a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/resources/freedom-of-information/foi-decisions/ic-review-decisions/2014-AICmr55.pdf">determination</a> of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in the case of “BZ” and Department of Immigration and Border Protection illustrates that government-run facilities may be subject to disclosure orders in appropriate circumstances.</p>
<p>In this case, the applicant sought CCTV footage of his treatment at the hands of an employee at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. The commissioner found that it was not unreasonable for the department to release edited footage of the incident to the applicant to allow him to advance his legal claim for compensation.</p>
<p>So where does this leave the “disappeared” six terabytes of digital data that Wilson Security withheld from the ANAO? The legal issue is somewhat blurred by the fact that the company that the government contracted to run its offshore detention centres, Transfield Services, sub-contracted its <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/fragment/transfield-wins-12bn-contract-manus-nauru-detention-centre-security">security obligations</a> to Wilson Security.</p>
<p>Wilson’s first allegiance, contractually, is to Transfield, not the government. Assuming that contractual maze is negotiable, any party interested in pursuing the missing footage would not only need to establish a legal interest in it, but also jump the next legal hurdle of proving, on balance and without seeing the material, that it was not unreasonable for the department to track it down and then open it up to scrutiny.</p>
<p>Interested parties are unlikely to be supported in any such endeavour by the minister, who would see this as little more than a political “fishing” exercise. </p>
<p>Simply stated: don’t expect to see the footage from the missing six terabytes any time soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Sarre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a recent report highlighting ‘shortcomings’ in security and welfare services in offshore detention, six terabytes of data was ‘missing’. Don’t expect to see it any time soon.Rick Sarre, Professor of Law, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/671372016-10-23T19:13:01Z2016-10-23T19:13:01ZDoes CCTV footage help or hinder the reduction of violence against women?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141933/original/image-20161017-14865-19h6r6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">CCTV footage is often seen to be decisive – an authoritative and objective witness that can tell us 'what really happened'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Joe Castro</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earlier this month, Moazzam Tariq was <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sex-assault-conviction-1.3795985">found guilty</a> of sexual assault against a woman after a night out in Ontario, Canada. In sentencing, the judge mentioned extensive surveillance video footage that showed Tariq giving the complainant alcohol. This was marked as evidence that proved the woman could not consent. </p>
<p>The introduction of security footage in courtrooms as evidence is <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00450610802537960?journalCode=tajf20&">increasingly common</a>. With the number of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras <a href="http://aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rip/21-40/rip40.html">rising</a>, the likelihood of images deemed relevant for criminal proceedings being recorded also increases.</p>
<p>However, while CCTV footage may arguably have assisted in achieving convictions in some high-profile cases, can it assist in the overall reduction of violence against women? </p>
<h2>Where it has helped</h2>
<p>A well-known example in Australia of CCTV helping solve a crime is the footage pulled from a shop on Sydney Road the night Jill Meagher was raped and murdered by Adrian Bayley. This footage was mentioned in <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VSC/2013/313.html">his sentencing</a> in 2013. </p>
<p>In the same year, Simon Gittany was found guilty of the murder of his partner Lisa Harnum. CCTV footage – taken from his own security cameras – was again interpreted as <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/nsw/NSWSC/2013/1737.html">key evidence</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond the courtroom, news media reports of crime are saturated with the use of CCTV footage. In both contexts, it is often seen to be <a href="http://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/decisive">decisive</a> – an authoritative and objective witness that can tell us “what really happened”.</p>
<p>While used in a range of offences, its inclusion in instances of extreme (and public) violence against women can mean certain images receive significant and sustained media attention, and may remain online <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2014.952760">indefinitely</a>. </p>
<p>The strength of CCTV in our public consciousness is such that questions of privacy are often <a href="https://twitter.com/snowden/status/661938964304166912">dismissed as inconsequential</a>. CCTV installed in the <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/cctv-plan-to-deter-domestic-violence-20131002-2usx0.html">homes of family violence victims</a> has even been considered. </p>
<h2>But there are concerns</h2>
<p>In Australia, women are far more likely to experience <a href="http://anrows.org.au/publications/fast-facts/violence-against-women-key-statistics%20">sexual violence</a> or be killed by a current or former partner than a stranger. Both of these crime types are also most likely to occur in a <a href="http://aic.gov.au/dataTools/facts/violentCrimeLoc.html">residential setting</a>, and therefore probably away from the gaze of CCTV. </p>
<p>Despite these statistics, <a href="http://www.casahouse.com.au/index.php?page_id=155">myths</a> persist. It is assumed most rapists are strangers or that there will be <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-jury-bias-preventing-justice-for-rape-victims-60090">clear evidence</a> of sexual violence. </p>
<p>Circulating images relating to the sexual assault of Meagher or the victim in Canada – both of which took place near CCTV and in non-residential areas – risks further embedding these assumptions, given the persuasive <a href="https://www.ourwatch.org.au/getmedia/339a9055-16fb-4d57-8cb3-3d2a2f9c5fa1/Media-representations-of-violence-against-women-state-knowledge-paper.pdf.aspx">power of media representation</a>. </p>
<p>Also, some Australians have a very poor understanding of <a href="https://theconversation.com/rape-culture-why-our-community-attitudes-to-sexual-violence-matter-31750">sexual consent</a>. They assume non-consent will be obvious, or that a woman may lie because she has regrets about having sex. Placing great emphasis on CCTV footage in criminal proceedings to prove guilt is troubling for this reason.</p>
<p>Tariq was reportedly found guilty on the weight of security footage and not simply because the victim told police she had no memory of consenting to sex. News media have further reported that video evidence made up for the victim being an <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sex-assault-conviction-1.3795985">unreliable witness</a> due to her consumption of alcohol. </p>
<p>Like most forensic evidence, CCTV footage still requires interpretation. And yet when admitted as evidence, it can take precedence over other witness testimonies. This is particularly concerning given that sexual assault cases often rely on victim testimony. </p>
<p>Already a <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/law-crime/2016/09/17/sexual-assault-victims-and-flawed-justice-system/14740344003748">traumatic process</a>, if a victim’s account comes into conflict with CCTV footage, the strength of the prosecutors’ decision to proceed in a sexual assault case <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/tandi/281-300/tandi288.html">diminishes</a>. </p>
<p>With only 20% of all sexual assaults estimated to be <a href="http://aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/facts/1-20/2014/crime_justice_stats.html">reported to police</a>, CCTV footage – either its absence or its conflicted account – could negatively impact this rate. </p>
<h2>It shouldn’t be essential</h2>
<p>Even if CCTV were installed in homes to reduce violence against women, it may not help. </p>
<p>Simon Gittany subjected Lisa Harnum to intimate partner violence prior to her death. This included the installation of security cameras facing into their apartment for the purposes of watching her.</p>
<p>On the day Harnum was killed, however, Gittany had switched all but one off in the morning. Installing CCTV may not prevent violence against women in residential areas, but instead extend it. </p>
<p>Thinking beyond the immediate utility of CCTV in specific criminal cases, images reproduced for other purposes – that is, beyond finding a “guilty” verdict – should also be considered in the context of violence. </p>
<p>The “<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2315872">cultural afterlife</a>” of criminal evidence can be unmediated in its use. Materials can be used in new ways, such as artwork, and often without the consent of individuals depicted. </p>
<p>Not only this, the unnecessary reproduction of CCTV footage that replays a traumatic moment in someone’s life may be considered <a href="https://theconversation.com/azaria-chamberlain-inquest-forget-the-dingo-jokes-and-recognise-lindys-trauma-7590">unethical</a> and harmful.</p>
<p>With the expansion of CCTV in public and private settings, it is important to interrogate its purpose in both the courtroom and the news. Rather than assuming its account as “best witness” or simply harmless, we should revisit underlying causes of crime so that CCTV need not be essential in reducing violence against women. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitlin Overington does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While potentially helpful in resolving extraordinary cases, an over-reliance on CCTV images to tell ‘the truth’ risks perpetuating certain myths regarding violence against women.Caitlin Overington, PhD Candidate in Criminology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/630462016-07-27T01:44:56Z2016-07-27T01:44:56ZCCTV: who can watch whom under the law?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132085/original/image-20160727-12749-1f2szkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Disturbing images such as this from the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre have shocked the nation and prompted a royal commission.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Four Corners</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the past few days, CCTV footage has been at the centre of two major news stories. </p>
<p>The first, at the Northern Territory’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, showed the shocking treatment <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-25/child-hooded-to-mechanical-restraint-chair-in-nt-detention/7659008">meted out to juvenile detainees</a> in 2014.</p>
<p>The second came from South Australia, showing the abuse of an elderly dementia patient <a href="http://indaily.com.au/news/local/2016/07/26/hidden-camera-horror-puts-surveillance-laws-to-test/">in a nursing home</a>. A camera had been secretly (and illegally) placed by the patient’s daughter because she was suspicious of maltreatment.</p>
<p>Every day, the media, lawyers and police are handed public and private CCTV footage, along with recordings from mobile phones. These usually contain displays of grossly inappropriate and often illegal behaviour. People provide the data for any number of reasons, including to report corruption, to defend themselves or simply to embarrass malefactors. </p>
<p>These tapes can be very useful in solving serious crimes, too, such as the CCTV footage captured in September 2012 in Melbourne when <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/what-bayley-did-in-jills-final-hours-20130313-2fzvo.html">Jill Meagher was killed</a> by a man who approached her in the street late at night. The emergence of the footage (from a private shopfront), which showed Meagher walking from a bar along the street towards her home and being met by a man, known to police, at 1:40AM, was crucial to solving the case.</p>
<p>The volume of material filmed overtly and covertly grows by the day. It is so ubiquitous that people now appear frustrated when there is no footage of events that have captured public attention.</p>
<p>The vast majority of CCTV cameras are owned and monitored by private security companies, or by private householders and businesses, so we have no idea how many are in operation in Australia. We do know that there are <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/01/02/australia-has-more-phones-people">more active mobile phone accounts</a> (most of which have a recording capability) than there are people. YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and other social media brands now provide welcome platforms for the immediate worldwide distribution of recordings and images. </p>
<p>These advances bring with them opportunities for people to manage and respond effectively to crises and crime risks, and expose injustices. But they raise substantial privacy concerns.</p>
<h2>What the law says</h2>
<p>Who can film, and in what circumstances? How much of this material can then be broadcast or used as evidence in the courts? The answers are not easy to find. </p>
<p>The laws regulating filming and distributing <a href="http://legal.thomsonreuters.com.au/the-law-of-private-security-in-australia-2nd-edition/productdetail/99342">are many and varied</a>. They operate at state and federal level. They are a mixture of legislation and common law. They differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. </p>
<p>Three jurisdictions – the ACT, Queensland and Tasmania – still only mention listening devices, not cameras. Some parliaments have not addressed or even contemplated the new technologies, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/drones-finally-get-mps-talking-tougher-on-privacy-laws-29197">drones that allow filming to occur</a> from the sky – let alone the social media platforms that carry the footage.</p>
<p>Having said that, there are some questions we can answer.</p>
<p>Can people be filmed using visible CCTV and phone cameras without their permission? The answer is “yes”, where they have been warned of the presence of cameras, and even if not, if there is a demonstrable public interest in such surveillance (for example, to ensure that patrons in casino gaming rooms are not cheating, or to ensure public safety in crowded walkways). There must also be no evidence of misuse, or malicious or defamatory intent.</p>
<p>Far more problematic is covert surveillance. The common law does not prohibit such filming, but the tapes may be inadmissible as legal evidence if the person under scrutiny can prove to a court that there are public policy reasons for not allowing filming of this type.</p>
<p>Legislation, too, has been emerging in the last 20 years, but it is a dog’s breakfast.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/sda1998210/">Western Australia</a>, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/sda1999210/">Victoria</a>, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nt/num_act/sda200719o2007256/">Northern Territory</a>, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/sa/consol_act/sda2016210/">South Australia</a> and <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/sda2007210/">New South Wales</a>, covert surveillance by taping conversations or filming liaisons is now properly regulated. Typically there is a “public interest” defence, but that term is not defined and will rely on judicial interpretation as cases come before the courts.</p>
<p>Publishing and communicating a verbal recording is permitted in <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/qld/consol_act/iopa1971222/">Queensland</a>, NSW, WA and <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/act/consol_act/lda1992181/">the ACT</a> – but only if it occurs “in the course of legal proceedings”. In some legislation, there is scope for private investigators <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/tas/consol_act/lda1991181/">to use surveillance devices more broadly</a>, especially where they are acting to support police or a recognised crime fighting authority.</p>
<p>In NSW employees are protected against unwarranted workplace surveillance <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/wsa2005245/">by legislation</a>, too. It is unlawful to engage in covert surveillance unless a magistrate has given appropriate authorisation.</p>
<p>It is an offence in all jurisdictions to broadcast without permission a recording of a covertly taped conversation or publish the information from it. But the publicised cases where prosecutions have proceeded are few and far between.</p>
<p>The various offences – and numerous and contradictory defences – in each jurisdiction illustrate the awkward consequences of state and territory governments failing to pursue uniform legislation. The variety of approaches leaves the law complicated, inconsistent and thus unsatisfactory.</p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>On the one hand, there is the strong sense that people indulge in a privacy-benefit trade-off, and calculate that their lives, and safety, can be enhanced by additional surveillance, whether overt or covert. This is especially true if it exposes events that demand exposure. </p>
<p>On the other hand, it may be that individuals will soon develop a greater expectation that their privacy should be better protected by law, given the potential for covert devices to become more and more intrusive and invasive.</p>
<p>Finding the appropriate legal balance between the rights of citizens to enjoy their solitude away from the prying eyes of others, and the legitimate interests that the state, its media, its corporations and private citizens might have in shining a light on their shady – if not outrageous – behaviours is a difficult one. </p>
<p>I have always been a champion of the right to privacy, but, having seen the images that have emerged in the last 48 hours, I may now rethink my position.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Sarre receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is a member of the Australian Labor Party.</span></em></p>The use of surveillance cameras raises difficult issues for the law in balancing privacy with exposure that is in the public interest – and perhaps it’s time that balance was reviewed.Rick Sarre, Professor of Law, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/593932016-06-06T20:07:33Z2016-06-06T20:07:33ZSafety – or profit? The booming business of CCTV and Safer Streets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125055/original/image-20160603-23266-5t65u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The link between CCTV and safety is weak; the link with commerce is stronger.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/78821753@N03/23471517392/in/photolist-81JzpW-81JzLb-8367w1-81EsMc-s2Tuho-81JAH3-8369Jd-81JA6w-81FrFK-554deg-oXGrV-8n8fE1-6E6bUm-dh5GUx-8TRZCk-8n593R-8n8fYh-3jF5n-8n8eW7-9aafTE-3jF7d-Ukp3-5koymM-9ehFdy-6ujYv1-BL6Eom-4QLbo-zgbFWQ-2GtzqK-AdXeye-AeVoFg">Flickr/Ashley/Jakub Geltner, Sculpture by the Sea, 'Nest '06'</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Closed circuit street cameras have been sold to the community as a way of making us safer, reducing crime and discouraging anti-social behaviour. But <a href="http://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/pe-cctv/programme">research</a> into the Federal Government’s $50 million Safer Streets program shows its main effect has been unchecked proliferation of highly profitable commercial arrangements between governments and private firms, amid little evidence that it improves public safety.</p>
<p>The Tony Abbott-led government announced Safer Streets in 2014 to assist local councils finance the establishment of street camera systems, with a second round of funding unveiled last December. </p>
<p>Across Australia, 85 local councils received Safer Streets funding in the first round. Promoting the scheme during the Liberal Party’s 2013 election campaign, Bronwyn Bishop <a href="http://www.southcoastregister.com.au/story/1740109/coalition-pledges-cctv-funds/">said</a> the cameras would be a deterrent because people “know they are going to be caught”. </p>
<p>In 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and then-Justice Minister Michael Keenan <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2014/08/02/cctv-installation-crime-prevention-or-friends-the-government/1406901600">said</a>: “All Australians have the right to feel safe and secure … and [this] program will help to achieve that.” </p>
<p>But while buttressing the Coalition’s national security agenda, Safer Streets has been criticised over a lack of evidence and political bias underpinning the funding policy.</p>
<p>In 2015 the <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/award-funding-under-safer-streets-programme">Report of the Commonwealth National Audit Office</a> was delivered following an inquiry into Safer Streets amid complaints that the funding program was <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2014/08/02/cctv-installation-crime-prevention-or-friends-the-government/1406901600">“pork barrelling”</a>. </p>
<p>The report was highly critical of the program with Safer Streets funding accessible to local councils strictly by invitation of the Government for the first round of grants.</p>
<p>Auditor General Ian McPhee found several “significant shortcomings” related to how the Attorney General’s Department conducted its eligibility checks, adding “the merit assessment process … was handled particularly poorly by the department”. </p>
<p>Safer Streets has been <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/auditorgeneral-to-examine-abbott-governments-anticrime-fund-over-porkbarrelling-claims-20140831-10al2q.html">criticised</a> for “a lack of transparency over its guidelines, its selection criteria, and ultimately, over which projects were chosen”.</p>
<p>Around 90% of first-round funding recipients were situated in Coalition federal seats. The second round of funding recipients, yet to be announced, is highly <a href="http://www.themandarin.com.au/64787-evaluation-free-zone-safer-streets-cctv-nothing-but-an-electoral-tool/">anticipated</a>. </p>
<p>Safer Streets provided the Abbott Government with opportunities to cultivate grassroots support — or at least a perception of it — by requiring local councils to ceremoniously “accept” offers of funding.</p>
<p>Government MPs organised publicity, petitions and mobilised business chambers with “no strings” carrots of public subsidies. Buoyed by the support of business chambers they called upon taxpayers to finance the set-up and then the ratepayer to fund ongoing costs for CCTV, which have been <a href="http://www.palgrave-journals.com/sj/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/sj201412a.html">exorbitant</a>.</p>
<p>Safer Streets is part of a broader political-economic framework within which both electoral and commercial opportunities have been leveraged. </p>
<p>Internationally CCTV has played a significant role in the marketing of public areas as “clean” and “safe” in the efforts of local councils and business chambers to attract consumers, tourists and investment.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.asial.com.au/resources/research-and-statistics">Australian Security Industry Association Limited</a> (ASIAL) notes expenditure on private security in Australia between 2012 and 2013 was almost $5 billion, of which $2.3 billion was spent on security devices, installation and monitoring. <a href="https://issuu.com/apsm/docs/print_emag_june_july_with_links/41?e=9108448/8213138">Australian Security Magazine</a> claims “the electronic security market is forecast to experience double digit growth until 2020 and beyond”, concluding: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The commercial argument for the use of security technologies over more traditional security measures has never been more valid.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This prediction may be adequate considering the political climate. Demand for security tech and consulting has increased in light of the Coalition’s efforts to <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2014/08/02/cctv-installation-crime-prevention-or-friends-the-government/1406901600">enlist</a> local councils as new customers via Safer Streets.</p>
<p>A consequence of government-funded CCTV has been the portrayal of street crimes within a broader news advertising matrix. In one example government-funded CCTV footage was streamed online via the national <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/timothy-williams-jailed-for-violent-robbery-of-refugee-in-wollongong-20140605-39lzj.html">Fairfax Media</a> network depicting an assault against a recently arrived refugee in Wollongong flanked by <a href="http://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/pe-cctv/programme">advertisements</a>.</p>
<p>As one <a href="http://www.academia.edu/426158/Collaborative_Surveillance_Configuring_contemporary_marketing_practice">study</a> stipulates the marketing of CCTV footage by news companies has drawn consumers into a series of inter-related commercial activities through multimedia platforms. The adoption of CCTV footage has resulted in news media becoming a significant conduit conveying the political and economic meanings affixed to street camera footage.</p>
<p>But while there is little <a href="http://www.palgrave-journals.com/sj/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/sj201412a.html">research evidence</a> that street cameras reduce crime, politicians widely promote CCTV an effective crime prevention technology, which has led to <a href="http://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/4191">uncritical policy transfer</a>. In fact, Safer Streets has prohibited councils from utilising the grant scheme to conduct evaluations. </p>
<p>The potential for being discredited by objective evidence may explain why there is no strong desire expressed by politicians for local councils to produce regular CCTV evaluations. </p>
<p>Only one local council out of 18 <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1057%2Fsj.2014.12">surveyed nationally</a> in 2014 had collected crime statistics within the surveillance area — namely, Shoalhaven City Council - yet here crime rates actually increased after cameras were installed, defying the logic of proponents.</p>
<p>Affirming the Coalition’s commitment to the political economy of street cameras, one Liberal MP <a href="http://www.kiamaindependent.com.au/story/2323899/cameras-could-pose-legal-risk/">says</a> he would stand up for the use of CCTV established under Safer Streets and opposed “slick and sleazy” challenges to them.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. Kiama’s businesses wanted this and should be protected, and so should law-abiding citizens.” - Gareth Ward, Member for Kiama</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Addressing the Australian Government’s 2015 metadata retention laws, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/09/edward-snowden-says-australias-new-data-retention-laws-are-dangerous">Edward Snowden</a> is sceptical of the “nothing to hide/fear” logic stating that people who say they don’t worry about their privacy because they have nothing to hide “is like saying I don’t care about free speech because I have nothing to say”.</p>
<p>But a powerful pro-CCTV discourse is entwined in the construction of many politicians’ credibility and their public identities. Challenging these political and economic commitments to street cameras with an evidence-based perspective is unlikely to sway their efforts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Carr does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Politicians want us to believe closed circuit TV makes us safer. But the main beneficiaries are private firms handed lucrative tax-payer contracts.Robert Carr, Researcher, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/567722016-03-24T16:18:50Z2016-03-24T16:18:50ZCould super recognisers be the latest weapon in the war on terror?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116364/original/image-20160324-17817-eeph59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Three suspects in the Brussels airport bombing caught on CCTV.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Belgian Police</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of the terror attacks on Brussels, Belgian police rapidly identified two of the suicide bombers that carried out the attacks: brothers <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/12201940/Brussels-attack-suspects-unmasked-the-El-Bakraoui-brothers.html">Khalid and Brahim el-Bakraoui</a>, both Belgian nationals. The identification came after the police released CCTV images showing three men at the airport in Zaventem in the hope that people might recognise them and come forward with information.</p>
<p>The search for the <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-belgium-blast-idUKKCN0WO0LB">third man</a> wearing the white jacket and hat in the CCTV image has become the immediate focus for the massive police operation. He was thought to be carrying <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/brussels-attacks-man-in-white-still-at-large-had-biggest-bomb-which-did-not-go-off-a3210116.html">the most powerful bomb</a> which <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/655005/Brussels-attacks-bombs-Zaventem-airport-Belgium-terrorism">failed to go off</a>, prompting him to flee. The unexploded bomb was later safely <a href="https://twitter.com/AP/status/712313556591632385">deactivated</a> by experts.</p>
<p>It is clear the release of <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/brussels-attacks-terror-suspect-manhunt-7611403">images plays</a> a massive role in the manhunt – a taxi driver is said to have come forwards after <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/22/brussels-police-raids-manhunt-suspected-bomber">recognising CCTV images</a> of the three men he earlier dropped off at the airport. But looking at the grainy CCTV footage, it is hard to make out the blurred features of the suspects. So how easy is it to actually identify someone from a CCTV image?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116370/original/image-20160324-17824-1wnjvbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116370/original/image-20160324-17824-1wnjvbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=262&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116370/original/image-20160324-17824-1wnjvbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=262&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116370/original/image-20160324-17824-1wnjvbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=262&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116370/original/image-20160324-17824-1wnjvbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116370/original/image-20160324-17824-1wnjvbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116370/original/image-20160324-17824-1wnjvbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hunt for the third man involved in the Brussels bombings is underway.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Belgian Federal Police</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>You may not have heard of “<a href="http://www.ifsecglobal.com/super-recognisers-in-the-metropolitan-police/">super recognisers</a>” – people who literally never forget a face. In the UK, the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/super-recognisers-used-by-the-police-to-identify-criminals-and-spot-offenders-in-crowds-10324186.html">London Metropolitan Police</a> has its own super recogniser squad who have been shown to have extraordinary powers of recall when it comes to identifying people from an image or photo.</p>
<p>Both in policing and at border control, unfamiliar face matching – rather than face memory – is key to successful operation. Super recognisers have been shown to <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2016/research/super-recognisers-metpolice/">perform significantly better</a> than control groups in a number of tasks related to identification. So could this enhanced ability to spot a face in a crowd be used in the fight against terrorism?</p>
<h2>Face off</h2>
<p>A group of current Met Police super recognisers were assessed with the <a href="http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/m.burton/pages/gfmt/Glasgow%20Face%20Recognition%20Group.html">Glasgow Face Matching Test</a> (GFMT), a standardised test of unfamiliar face-matching ability. In this task, participants are shown pairs of faces and are asked to determine whether they show the same person or two different people. </p>
<p>The GFMT sounds like a deceptively simple task, show a person two faces and ask whether they show the same individual or two different people. However, the key thing here is that they are unfamiliar faces – and <a href="http://www.facevar.com/">our research</a> has shown that <a href="https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/130/1/hancock-tics-2000.pdf">unfamiliar face recognition is hard</a> and highly prone to error. </p>
<p>In fact, error rates in this task for the average person range from <a href="http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150036">15-20%</a> – and we know from previous findings that even a group of passport officers perform no better, even those with years of experience in matching faces. </p>
<p>So how did the super recognisers do? Well, their performance on the GFMT unfamiliar face-matching task was <a href="http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150036">outstanding</a>, where average error rates in the comparison group – of police trainees – reached 19%, average error rates for the super recognisers fell to just 4%, with one officer reaching perfect levels of performance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116374/original/image-20160324-17832-psku8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116374/original/image-20160324-17832-psku8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116374/original/image-20160324-17832-psku8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116374/original/image-20160324-17832-psku8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116374/original/image-20160324-17832-psku8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116374/original/image-20160324-17832-psku8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116374/original/image-20160324-17832-psku8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116374/original/image-20160324-17832-psku8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Could super recognisers be key in the fight against terrorism?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dmitry Kalinovsky/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a <a href="http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150036">second experiment</a>, the demands of the task were increased by replacing the GFMT faces with those of male models. Models often alter their appearance and in this way the authors could test super recogniser’s unfamiliar face-matching performance for faces that varied in appearance to a greater degree. This type of task also mirrors an offender’s change in appearance, using of different hair styles, beards, and clothing.</p>
<p>Once again, the super recognisers <a href="http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150036">outperformed</a> the control group – a group of university students – on the models task, with error rates falling from 27% among the control group to 10% in the super recognisers. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/psychology/news-and-events/news-and-events/2016/yorkscientistsbackmetpolicesuper-recognisers/">third test</a> the super recognisers were presented with a familiar face-matching task using celebrity face images. The photos were all pixelated to mirror a forensic identification situation in which only low-quality CCTV images would be available. The super recognisers again scored significantly fewer errors (7%) compared to the control group (27%). </p>
<h2>Facing the facts</h2>
<p>These findings provide more evidence for the view that there are wide <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3125173/Are-super-recogniser-test-one-elite-group-people-rarely-forgets-face.html">individual differences</a> in face recognition ability across individuals in the population. And that people’s level of ability appears to be innate – training or years of experience makes little difference to the level of performance.</p>
<p>Across these three experiments using both unfamiliar and familiar faces in both easy and difficult viewing conditions, the Met Police’s super recognisers consistently outperformed the control groups. </p>
<p>The wider recruitment of this special breed of recognisers in other police forces and in agencies such as the passport office and border control – where accurate unfamiliar face matching is vital to the nation’s security – is very important in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-journey-from-jihad-to-islamist-terrorism-56717">fight against terrorism</a> and could go some way to bolstering national security efforts.</p>
<p>Much has been said about <a href="http://time.com/4269505/brussels-attacks-security-failure-belgium/">Belgium’s security failures</a> in the aftermath of the latest attacks on Brussels. But it isn’t just the Belgians who are struggling to keep a track of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-local-terrorist-cells-make-a-mockery-of-european-security-56698">jihadi networks</a> within their country. The latest talks have renewed calls for a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35889584">European wide intelligence agency</a> that could share information quickly and easily between countries. Because it is clear that for long as terrorists can cross borders, we need security that can do the same.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The York FaceVar Lab (<a href="http://www.facevar.com">www.facevar.com</a>) receive their funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n.323262, and from the Economic and Social Research Council, UK (ES/J022950/1)</span></em></p>How easy is it to recognise a suspect from a CCTV image?David James Robertson, Research Fellow @ York FaceVar Lab, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546012016-02-25T11:59:15Z2016-02-25T11:59:15ZWhy CCTV in care homes could cause more harm than good<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112595/original/image-20160223-16459-dwoh3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In safe hands?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kristo-Gothard Hunor/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK may well be the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8160757.stm">most watched nation on the planet</a>, but when it comes to our country’s care homes many believe more still needs to be done in terms of safety and surveillance.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hudgellsolicitors.co.uk/news-media/hudgell-solicitors-supports-petition-calling-for-compulsory-cctv-in-care-homes/#more-7361">A recent campaign</a> has called for CCTV cameras to be installed in every care home in the UK amid <a href="https://www.sundaypost.com/news/scottish-news/scandal-of-rising-abuse-in-care-homes-with-more-than-1600-allegations-in-one-year/">an increase</a> in care home-related abuse cases and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b042rcjp">the reporting</a> of horrific care home practices by the BBC’s Panorama programme. </p>
<p>While no one would want to dispute that society should be caring for the elderly, or that those involved in such abuse should be apprehended and prosecuted, the blanket surveillance of workers and residents to a degree that few reading this article would accept in their own homes, should be considered very carefully.</p>
<h2>Eye in the sky</h2>
<p>It is true that surveillance, or even the suggestion of surveillance, can improve people’s behaviour. Researchers have found that signs with a large pair of eyes <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-the-eyes-really-stare-down-bicycle-crime-in-newcastle-14325">can deter would-be bicycle thieves</a>. And that even a picture of eyes by a communal work coffee pot can <a href="https://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/daniel.nettle/biology%20letters.pdf">increase contributions to the adjacent honesty box</a>. So it is likely that CCTV will encourage those staff who are not behaving as they should to act better, and in theory at least it is likely that any staff misbehaving will be caught.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112597/original/image-20160223-16459-1pbi4fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112597/original/image-20160223-16459-1pbi4fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112597/original/image-20160223-16459-1pbi4fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112597/original/image-20160223-16459-1pbi4fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112597/original/image-20160223-16459-1pbi4fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112597/original/image-20160223-16459-1pbi4fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112597/original/image-20160223-16459-1pbi4fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112597/original/image-20160223-16459-1pbi4fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Big brother is watching you.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">enzozo/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet as anyone who has been bullied at school knows, there are always corners which can be found where no one is watching. One question of surveillance that this raises is whether we want to live in a society where people behave well purely because they are being monitored. This seems to be a sticking plaster solution to a far deeper wound.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="http://www.hc-one.co.uk/media/image/Visible_Camera_Consultation_Report_Oct_2014_LATEST.PDF">survey by the care homes chain, HC-One,</a>] showed that the majority of workers at care homes are in favour of surveillance (63%) but less than half (47%) of the residents support the idea. </p>
<p>Privacy was highlighted as a big concern from residents, along with a large percentage of respondents worried about how the footage would be <a href="http://www.hc-one.co.uk/media/image/Visible_Camera_Consultation_Report_Oct_2014_LATEST.PDF">stored and viewed</a>. By far the largest group in favour of surveillance were relatives (87%), going to show that out of sight doesn’t necessarily mean out of mind. But should this extra level of reassurance for friends and family come at the expense of residents’ personal privacy?</p>
<h2>Big brother</h2>
<p>It is a reasonable expectation that surveillance should both have a reason for being put in place and should be as <a href="http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/ethics_debate2">discriminating as possible</a>. But if abuse is not occurring in the majority of care homes is there really a need for residents, staff and visitors to be <a href="https://www.unison.org.uk/content/uploads/2015/02/TowebUNISON-guidance-on-the-use-of-surveillance-cameras-in-health-and-care-settings2.pdf">constantly under scrutiny</a>. With no valid reason to install CCTV in the majority of homes, other than as a preventative measure the surveillance itself would be highly indiscriminate, targeting the innocent and guilty alike. </p>
<p>If there is no evidence of any harm taking place then it seems gratuitous to install CCTV in a home. The potential for harm is surely not sufficient to impose an actual harm on people – and <a href="http://www.surveillance-studies.net/?page_id=119">surveillance does itself entail “harms”</a>. With it comes a reduction in privacy, a feeling of being mistrusted, “<a href="http://www.pen.org/sites/default/files/globalchilling_2015.pdf">chilling effects</a>” on the development of relationships between residents, and a feeling of vulnerability towards whoever is watching. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sLMDJqXtAg0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Taking a wider view, if the potential for abuse of the elderly in private care homes merits universal surveillance, then what of the potential for abuse of people in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/12/14-million-women-suffered-domestic-abuse-last-year-ons-figures-show">their own homes</a>? Are we reaching the stage where a campaign will be launched to have CCTV installed in every home in the country to prevent domestic abuse and paedophilia?</p>
<p>The images seen on Panorama and the cases which have made it to the public on the abuse of the elderly and vulnerable in care homes have been truly shocking and deserve our collective repugnance. However, forcing CCTV into every care home in the country against the wishes of the majority of residents and a significant minority of the workers is not the answer. There should instead be a greater investment in both the initial and <a href="http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/calderdale/nobody-in-charge-at-calderdale-care-home-1-7739772">ongoing training of staff</a>, and managerial oversight of day-to-day operations. If there are grounds to suspect abuse then this could justify covert recording, but blanket surveillance is a step too far.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Macnish does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Putting CCTV in all UK care homes would be a breach of residents privacy and could have serious ramifications for the rest of society.Kevin Macnish, Teaching Fellow and Consultant in Applied Ethics, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/400772015-06-17T01:28:47Z2015-06-17T01:28:47ZPost-release mentoring succeeds in everything but winning funding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84478/original/image-20150610-6790-1y5ko0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1168%2C2330%2C1716&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Funding CCTV cameras annihilated a proposal in NSW to create a mentoring program directed at young women in prisons or undergoing release.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">Beyond Prison</a> series, which examines better ways to reduce re-offending, following the recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/state-of-imprisonment">State of Imprisonment</a> series.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In December 2013, federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan wrote to 151 community organisations to announce that the new Coalition government would not honour the projects that its Labor predecessor had approved under the National Crime Prevention Fund. The <a href="https://www.wipan.net.au/">Women in Prison Advocacy Network</a> (WIPAN) was among the organisations that were written to.</p>
<p>Keenan argued that these projects had not entered into a formal funding agreement. They would be replaced by the A$50 million <a href="http://www.anao.gov.au/Publications/Audit-Reports/2014-2015/The-Award-of-Funding-under-the-Safer-Streets-Programme/Audit-summary">plan</a> for safer streets, which addressed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… crime and anti-social behaviour by measures such as CCTV cameras and better lighting. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Funding the “CCTV cameras” effectively annihilated WIPAN’s proposal of creating a mentoring program directed at young women in prisons or undergoing release. This program was responding to the growing presence of young women in the NSW prison system and the disproportionate criminalisation of young Indigenous women.</p>
<p>The safer streets plan expands on <a href="http://legacy.usfsm.edu/academics/cas/capstone/2010-2011/criminology/chaplinski-forensic%20intelligence.pdf?from=404">“evidence and intelligence-led policing”</a>. CCTV cameras become part of a network of security technologies that employ analysis and intelligence work to gather data and evidence on criminals. </p>
<p>This focus falls within risk-management police strategies posed as preventing crimes and recidivism by placing an emphasis on those identified as risky offenders. In doing so, it stands in opposition to WIPAN’s mentoring work. </p>
<p>WIPAN actively rejects the way that state and law enforcement agencies view some women as risky criminals. It specialises in addressing historical and current mechanisms that produce the <a href="http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/24468/">“hyper-incarceration”</a> of especially Indigenous women and those culturally differentiated as vulnerable through a mix of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, class and educational status, disability, mental and physical health.</p>
<p>WIPAN’s principal focus is on assisting women to transform the varied, complex social circumstances that have shaped their criminalisation. This acknowledges that these women, more often than not, have also been the subjects of crimes within and outside institutional settings. It aims to assist women in the criminal justice system to (self) determine forms of diversion from unhealthy practices, violent settings and relationships and, ultimately, re-imprisonment. </p>
<p>WIPAN emerged in 2007. It successfully ran its first gender-responsive mentoring program in 2009. The program pairs women in prison and after release with mentors recruited from the community who have been formally trained by TAFE and WIPAN. Maintaining non-judgemental, practical and emotional support and guidance drives the mentoring relationship. </p>
<p>Mentoring is especially focused on women transitioning to or already on release. One comparative <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=s4qsAgAAQBAJ&pg">study</a> on the post-release experiences of women in Victoria and the UK confirms WIPAN’s own <a href="https://www.wipan.net.au/publications/WIPAN_The_Report_Pilot_Mentoring_Program_2009-2011-OK.pdf">findings</a> in NSW that this is a precarious moment. The risks are compounded by a lack of essential and relevant support. </p>
<p>These women are likely to have a range of difficulties in re-entering the community. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>finding services that support their diverse needs;</p></li>
<li><p>finding safe and non-violent accommodation; </p></li>
<li><p>dealing with risks of drug use; </p></li>
<li><p>re-establishing or cutting ties from family and community relations; </p></li>
<li><p>finding employment; </p></li>
<li><p>not resuming unhealthy friendships; and</p></li>
<li><p>re-uniting with children. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>These findings show that women coming out of jail require forms of assistance that are not simply related to the surveillance technologies for prevention or elimination of recidivism, but rather that are focused on women’s health and well-being. </p>
<p>Therefore, WIPAN staff and mentors act as social contacts who follow up, advocate and provide ongoing everyday practical and emotional support. They collaborate in the advancement and “enhancement of the well-being of prisoners and ex-prisoners” by increasing their social capital. They support community reintegration by helping women to cope, to seek the support they need and to make autonomous decisions.</p>
<p>WIPAN’s <a href="https://www.wipan.net.au/publications/WIPAN_The_Report_Pilot_Mentoring_Program_2009-2011-OK.pdf">pilot program</a>, which ran from May 2010 to November 2011, indicated that even a short period of mentoring has a positive influence on the participants. Significantly, its emphasis on social support had meant that out of the 20 women who stayed in the program for more than two months, only one returned to prison. </p>
<p>While these women had previously been criminalised as “recidivists” and “serial recidivists”, WIPAN’s mentoring program successfully assisted them to exit criminalisation. </p>
<p>The Productivity Commission <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/114940/24-government-services-2012-chapter8.pdf">reported</a> in 2010 that the total operating costs per prisoner are A$100,740 per year, or $276 per day. The pilot program run by WIPAN operated on a $100,000 annual budget. It assisted 19 women in not re-entering prison.</p>
<p>In 2015, WIPAN does not know if it will continue to be funded. The current government emphasis on funding security technologies robs WIPAN’s potential success in mentoring. And, most importantly, it robs women of quite possibly their best chance to exit criminalisation.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the Beyond Prison series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/beyond-prison">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lara Palombo received an Australian Postgraduate Awards scholarship. Lara Palombo is a volunteer of WIPAN (Women in Prison Advocacy Network) and IWSA (Immigrant Women SpeakOut Association).</span></em></p>Women coming out of jail require forms of assistance that are not simply directed at technologies for prevention or elimination of recidivism, but rather that are focused on health and well-being.Lara Palombo, PhD scholar and Lecturer and Tutor in Critical and Cultural Studies, City Campus., Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/383052015-03-10T02:01:02Z2015-03-10T02:01:02ZCCTV and security guards in schools: protective or invasive?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/74020/original/image-20150306-3295-mcpgn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Do security cameras work to protect school kids?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/plashingvole/6116834369">Flickr/Plashing vole</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/schools-will-receive-funding-for-security-to-prevent-a-terror-attack/story-fncynjr2-1227244791856">Abbott government has announced</a> 54 schools around Australia will receive funding for security guards and CCTV cameras in an attempt to prevent possible terrorist attacks. </p>
<p>Recently, in his <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/prime-minister-tony-abbotts-national-security-address-in-full/story-fnii5s3x-1227235192303">national security address</a>, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said his government would “never underestimate” the threat. He said his government would:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>make the difficult decisions that must be taken to keep you and your family safe. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The funding for this surveillance in schools was released in conjunction with a concerted anti-terrorism effort that included the cancellation of welfare payments and revoking the passports of citizens assessed to be a threat. </p>
<p>When Justice Minister Michael Keenan <a href="http://www.ministerjustice.gov.au/Mediareleases/Pages/2015/Firstquarter2015/2-March-2015-Keeping-at-risk-schools-safe.aspx">made the announcement</a> that certain schools would have these measure put in place, he said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>All our children have the right to be educated in a safe and secure setting. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What are the consequences of having these cameras in schools?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Schools-Discipline-Contemporary-Prevention/dp/1137308850">Research suggests</a> that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>surveillance in schools can undermine privacy, erode trust, have a chilling effect on creativity and interaction, criminalise students and, in the most extreme cases, facilitate a direct and expedited channel from the school to prison.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The use of CCTV cameras in the UK <a href="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/c3x4630112r47n0u/">is said to be for</a> crime prevention, monitoring and controlling pupil behaviour. CCTV can be used in situations where blame and punishment need to be mediated. The security in one school is <a href="http://iospress.metapress.com/content/c3x4630112r47n0u/">described as</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Having large internal windows [which] were used for senior teachers’ offices allowing them to overlook the corridors (or perhaps more importantly give the impression to pupils that they were potentially being observed in panopticon-esque fashion) […] There was also a ‘control office’ where the CCTV footage was recorded and could be viewed. The use of CCTV extended to the pupil’s toilets, the justification for which was to enable staff to ensure that groups of pupils were not hiding in the toilets, intimidating or bullying other pupils.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Schools-Discipline-Contemporary-Prevention/dp/1137308850">However, a study in the UK</a> documented the tactics students devised to protect their privacy. These included avoiding monitored areas, altering their position and appearance to restrict CCTV identification, and repositioning the cameras.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.lfbscholarly.com/product-detail/security-in-schools-its-effect-on-students">Research</a> into the impacts of surveillance suggests that cameras do not exacerbate levels of fear in a community, nor do students feel that having cameras in a school is evidence that the school is taking their security seriously. </p>
<p><a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ645207">Many American schools</a> had CCTV cameras in place before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. After the attacks additional surveillance policies were put in place to respond to the possibility that schools could be a terrorist target. </p>
<p>With recent attacks on schools in <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-26/scores-dead-in-boko-haram-nigeran-school-attack/5284250">Nigeria</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-16/taliban-gunmen-attack-military-run-school-in-peshawar/5971484">Pakistan</a>, along with the recent events in <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-15/sydney-siege-hostages-cafe-martin-place-police-operation/5967232">Martin Place</a>, Sydney, it is important to consider measures to keep schools and young people safe.</p>
<p>It is also important to note that there is <a href="http://edr.sagepub.com/content/39/1/27.abstract">no evidence</a> that cameras keep schools safe. Some <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Surveillance-Schools-Discipline-Contemporary-Prevention/dp/1137308850">researchers in America</a> suggest that the costs and contracts surrounding this surveillance warrant further investigation.</p>
<h2>Protection versus privacy</h2>
<p>At the very least it should be made clear that the footage and other data collected will not be used to invade the privacy of young people. How the data will be stored, who has access to it and how it will be used need to be stipulated. </p>
<p>This is particularly important given the plan involves 17 Jewish and 15 Islamic schools, groups that have historically been targeted for surveillance based on profiling.</p>
<p>These measures have purportedly been put in place to protect these groups, which may be necessary due to recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-lets-the-anti-semitic-genie-out-of-its-australian-bottle-30307">rises</a> in <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/attacks-on-muslim-mothers-mount-20141009-113wdj.html">prejudice against</a> them.</p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2008.00173.x/abstract">Research</a> into collection of young people’s personal data tells us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Uninvited intrusion into their personal space or conflicting messages about their privacy rights are counterproductive […] They may yet have unintended consequences for children’s sense of personal integrity and for the kind of society that they will create in future.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://arrow.monash.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/monash:74421;jsessionid=147CE7435AE58EAE323427B8DFE85EBA?f0=sm_creator%3A%22Ruck%2C+M%22">International research</a> suggests young people in the current generation have a mistrust of the state, little belief in democracy and cynical views about a broad-based “common good”. </p>
<p>Certainly in Australia, <a href="http://monash.edu/mapping-population/social-cohesion-report.html">trust in government</a> has had a sharp decline. Participation in democracy has also fallen.</p>
<p>It is therefore even more important to consider the wishes and rights of young people regarding surveillance and data collection in their schools. This needs to be considered before any impingement upon freedoms and liberties of citizens, particularly those who are still too young to have a political voice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38305/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Abbott government has announced 54 schools will receive funding for security guards and CCTV cameras in an attempt to prevent possible terror attacks. But where is the line between protection and privacy invasion?Catherine Smith, PhD Student in Sociology of Education, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.