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Content type: Examples
Technology such as Hong Kong's electronic monitoring bracelets, used to ensure that people do not break their mandated quarantine, may appear reasonable during a pandemic, but could be problematic if deployed widely and used to identify those who have joined anti-government protests. The same applies to emergency legislation such as that passed by the UK government granting the government extraordinary new powers to shut down airports and ban gatherings. History provides examples:…
Content type: Examples
The Greek government issued a ban on all unnecessary traffic from March 23 to April 6 in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Anyone moving around under one of the list of exceptions must carry a police identity card or passport and a certificate of movement, which citizens obtain by filling out an online form (at form.gov.gr), or by filling out a paper form listing the reason for leaving home, or by sending an SMS. Employees are issued a certificate by their employer. The government…
Content type: Examples
Hong Kong is issuing electronic tracker wristbands to people under compulsory home quarantine to ensure they do not go out. The wristbands are accompanied by a mandatory smartphone app that shares their location with the government via messaging platforms such as WeChat and WhatsApp. Upon arriving at the place where they are quarantined, users walk around the corners so the technology can track the space in which they are confined.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/hong-kong-uses-…
Content type: Examples
The Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, one of two entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina, is introducing fines of €500 to €1,500 (individuals) or €3,000 to €9,000 for spreading "panic and disorder" by publishing false news about the coronavirus outbreak in the media and on social networks.
Source: https://balkaninsight.com/2020/03/19/bosnias-republika-srpska-imposes-fines-for-coronavirus-fake-news/
Writer: Danijel Kovacevic
Publication: BalkanInsight
Content type: Examples
The Paraguayan Minister of Defense, Bernardino Soto Estigarribia, announced that from March 17 onward restrictions on movement and crowds would be enforced by the military along with the police forces. The minister said it should not be thought of as a violation of human rights because the military understand the importance of respect. The country declared a state of emergency on March 16.
Source: https://www.ultimahora.com/covid-19-militares-tambien-controlaran-circulacion-personas-…
Content type: Examples
The presidential decree declaring a health emergency in Paraguay empowers the Ministry of Public Health to order "general preventive isolation" from 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m, with exceptions for those doing vital work such as delivering food or transportation. The Ministry of the Interior and its police forces patrol the streets to enforce the measures.
Sources:
https://news.yahoo.com/military-roadblocks-curfews-latin-america-023213811.html
https://www.presidencia.gov.py/archivos/documentos/…
Content type: Examples
In 2018, Brian Hofer, the chair of Oakland's Privacy Advisory Commission, filed suit after police wrongfully stopped him at gunpoint because their automated license plate recognition system, supplied by Vigilant Solutions, indicated that the rental car he was driving had been stolen. The car had in fact been stolen some months earlier, but been recovered. Despite such errors, police claim that the technology has helped reduce crime, identify stolen vehicles, and identify and arrest suspects.…
Content type: Examples
In February 2019 Gemalto announced it would supply the Uganda Police Force with its Cogent Automated Biometric Identification System and LiveScan technology in order to improve crime-solving. LiveScan enables police to capture biometric data alongside mugshots and biographical data. CABIS speeds up the biometric matching process by mapping distinctive characteristics in fingerprints, palm prints, and facial images. The Ugandan police will also pilot Gemalto's Mobile Biometric Identification…
Content type: Examples
In February 2019 BuzzFeed News reported that one of the largest home DNA testing companies, FamilyTreeDNA, had formed an agreement with the FBI to grant the agency access to its database of more than 1 million genetic profiles, most of which were supplied by consumers with no thought that they would be accessible to law enforcement. FamilyTreeDNA has also agreed to test DNA evidence and identify remains of victims of violent crimes for the FBI in its own laboratory. FamilyTreeDNA said…
Content type: Examples
In February 2019, the city of Rio de Janeiro announced that its police security operation for the annual five-day Carnival would include facial recognition and vehicle license plate cameras to identify wanted individuals and cars. Municipal officials said the system would help reduce thefts and robberies; critics dissented on the basis that a period when people are wearing masks, heavy makeup, glitter, and costumes is a bad time to test the technology.
https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/…
Content type: Examples
VeriPol, a system developed at the UK's Cardiff University, analyses the wording of victim statements in order to help police identify fake reports. By January 2019, VeriPol was in use by Spanish police, who said it helped them identify 64 false reports in one week and was successful in more than 80% of cases. The basic claim is that AI can find patterns that are common to false statements; among the giveaways experts say that false statements are likely to be shorter than genuine ones, focus…
Content type: Examples
In November 2016 the UK Information Commissioner's Office issued an enforcement notice against London's Metropolitan Police, finding that there had been multiple and serious breaches of data protection law in the organisation's use of the Gangs Violence Matrix, which it had operated since 2012. The ICO documented failures of oversight and coherent guidance, and an absence of basic data protection practices such as encryption and agreements covering data sharing. Individuals whose details are…
Content type: Examples
In 2018 a report from the Royal United Services Institute found that UK police were testing automated facial recognition, crime location prediction, and decision-making systems but offering little transparency in evaluating them. An automated facial recognition system trialled by the South Wales Police incorrectly identified 2,279 of 2,470 potential matches. In London, where the Metropolitan Police used facial recognition systems at the Notting Hill Carnival, in 2017 the system was wrong 98% of…
Content type: Examples
Although the US rejected a "National Data Center" approach in 1966, eventually instead passing the 1974 Privacy Act, in 2018 the House of Representatives proposed a national database of all 40 million recipients of benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as "food stamps"). The proposed legislation assigned the creation of the database to the Department of Agriculture, with help from private vendors and would collect Social Security numbers, birthdates…
Content type: Examples
A 2009 paper by the US National Academy of Sciences found that among forensic methods only DNA can reliably and consistency match evidence to specific individuals or sources. While it's commonly understood that techniques such as analysis of blood spatter patterns are up for debate, other types of visual evidence have been more readily accepted. In 2015 the FBI announced that virtually all of its hair analysis testing was scientifically indefensible, and in 2016 the Texas Forensic Science…
Content type: Case Study
Police and security services are increasingly outsourcing intelligence collection to third-party companies which are assigning threat scores and making predictions about who we are.
The rapid expansion of social media, connected devices, street cameras, autonomous cars, and other new technologies has resulted in a parallel boom of tools and software which aim to make sense of the vast amount of data generated from our increased connection. Police and security services see this data as an…