Averting Robot Eyes

Home robots will cause privacy harms. At the same time, they can provide beneficial services—as long as consumers trust them. This Essay evaluates potential technological solutions that could help home robots keep their promises, avert their eyes, and otherwise mitigate privacy harms. Our goals are to inform regulators of robot-related privacy harms and the available technological tools for mitigating them, and to spur technologists to employ existing tools and develop new ones by articulating principles for avoiding privacy harms. We posit that home robots will raise privacy problems of three basic types: (1) data privacy problems; (2) boundary management problems; and (3) social/relational problems. Technological design can ward off, if not fully prevent, a number of these harms. We propose five principles for home robots and privacy design: data minimization, purpose specifications, use limitations, honest anthropomorphism, and dynamic feedback and participation. We review current research into privacy-sensitive robotics, evaluating what technological solutions are feasible and where the harder problems lie. We close by contemplating legal frameworks that might encourage the implementation of such design, while also recognizing the potential costs of regulation at these early stages of the technology

Face and emotion recognition on commercial property under EU data protection law

This paper integrates and cuts through domains of privacy law and biometrics. Specifically, this paper presents a legal analysis on the use of Automated Facial Recognition Systems (the AFRS) in commercial (retail store) settings within the European Union data protection framework. The AFRS is a typical instance of biometric technologies, where a distributed system of dozens of low-cost cameras uses psychological states, sociodemographic characteristics, and identity recognition algorithms on thousands of passers-by and customers. Current use cases and theoretical possibilities are discussed due to the technology’s potential of becoming a substantial privacy issue. First, this paper introduces the AFRS and EU data protection law. This is followed by an analysis of European Data protection law and its application in relation to the use of the AFRS, including requirements concerning data quality and legitimate processing of personal data, which, finally, leads to an overview of measures that traders can take to comply with data protection law, including by means of information, consent, and anonymization

Techno-surveillance of the roads: High impact and low interest

Copyright © 2010 Palgrave Macmillan. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Crime Prevention and Community Safety. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Crime Prevention and Community Safety 10(1): 1-18 is available online at the link below.Road crashes and road crime are huge international problems produced by global society’s increasing dependence on motorised transport. To help reduce these crash and crime statistics, roads technology is rapidly developing to prevent the former and deter the latter. This technology largely works by vehicle surveillance, and as with surveillance technology used in other arenas of crime prevention, drawbacks and dangers go along with the safety and security enhancing aspects. This paper reviews some key emerging roads technologies, the theoretical concerns raised by them and how, through various theoretical frameworks, they could be explored by the discipline of criminology. It urges that the surveillance aspects of road crime prevention and the study of vehicle-related crime more generally would benefit from criminological consideration and be theoretically rewarding. Moreover, in view of the centrality of the roads in contemporary life and the extent of global harm caused there, it contends that criminology should engage with this terrain

CCTV Surveillance System, Attacks and Design Goals

Closed Circuit Tele-Vision surveillance systems are frequently the subject of debate. Some parties seek to promote their benefits such as their use in criminal investigations and providing a feeling of safety to the public. They have also been on the receiving end of bad press when some consider intrusiveness has outweighed the benefits. The correct design and use of such systems is paramount to ensure a CCTV surveillance system meets the needs of the user, provides a tangible benefit and provides safety and security for the wider law-abiding public. In focusing on the normative aspects of CCTV, the paper raises questions concerning the efficiency of understanding contemporary forms of ‘social ordering practices’ primarily in terms of technical rationalities while neglecting other, more material and ideological processes involved in the construction of social order. In this paper, a 360-degree view presented on the assessment of the diverse CCTV video surveillance systems (VSS) of recent past and present in accordance with technology. Further, an attempt been made to compare different VSS with their operational strengths and their attacks. Finally, the paper concludes with a number of future research directions in the design and implementation of VSS

Automated Number Plate Recognition: Data Retention and the Protection of Privacy in Public Places

This article considers the legal regime related to the use of Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) by reference to Article 8 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Article 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (Charter). This area is problematic in that it involves the extent to which we can claim privacy in public spaces. The article argues that the right to privacy is engaged both because of the systematic storage of data by public authorities and because of the impact of location privacy. Locational privacy is a concept that has not been addressed directly in domestic literature and the article explains its nature and how it relates to ANPR. The article then considers whether the regimes in place satisfy the three stage test found in Article 8(2) ECHR and the analogous provision in the Charter bearing in mind the recent case on mass surveillance in the communications sector. The article concludes that the regime is open to challenge as it lacks a clear legal base and most likely would fail a proportionality assessment. A legislative regime specifying adequate safeguards and oversight mechanisms would seem, therefore, desirable