Center on Privacy and Technology

Last updated
Center on Privacy and Technology
Formation2014
Founder Alvaro Bedoya
TypePolicy think tank
Location
Director
Emily Tucker
Parent organization
 Georgetown University Law Center
Website www.law.georgetown.edu/privacy-technology-center/

The GeorgetownCenter on Privacy and Technology is a think tank at Georgetown University in Washington, DC dedicated to the study of privacy and technology. Established in 2014, it is housed within the Georgetown University Law Center. [1] The goal of the Center is to conduct research and empower legal and legislative advocacy around issues of privacy and surveillance, with a focus on how such issues affect groups of different social class and race. [2] In May 2022, the Center's founding director Alvaro Bedoya was confirmed as a commissioner of the United States Federal Trade Commission. [3]

Contents

Activities

Surveillance

The Center hosts an annual conference titled "The Color of Surveillance" which explored how government and technological surveillance affected different marginalized populations, including Black Americans, immigrants to the United States, religious minorities, and poor and working people. [4]

In May 2022, the Center on Privacy and Technology published American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century, a report detailing how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has built a far-reaching surveillance system by accessing driver’s license databases, utility records, and purchasing data from commercial brokers, often without judicial oversight. [5] The report found that ICE's surveillance practices affect the majority of adults in the United States. [6] The findings of American Dragnet prompted significant congressional attention. In a House Judiciary Committee hearing titled Digital Dragnets: Examining the Government's Access to Your Personal Data, Representative Zoe Lofgren submitted the American Dragnet report into the hearing record. [7] In September 2022, U.S. Senators Edward Markey and Ron Wyden sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security urging the agency to cease its use of invasive surveillance technologies, including facial recognition and the purchase of commercial data. The Senators described ICE’s surveillance network as "Orwellian" and raised concerns about its broad civil rights implications. [8]

Facial recognition

The Center has collaborated with many advocacy organizations, including the ACLU, the Algorithmic Justice League, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as part of campaigns raising awareness about the use of facial recognition by the government. In 2016, the Center published a report called The Perpetual Line-Up: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America which documents the widespread unregulated use of facial recognition by law enforcement across the United States. [9] [10] In 2018, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Center against the New York Police Department revealed that facial recognition scans were being run on mugshots of every arrestee. [11] A subsequent report in 2019, "Garbage In, Garbage Out: Face Recognition on Flawed Data" documented multiple cases of police departments attempting to identify suspects using hand-drawn sketches, highly edited photos, and photos of celebrity lookalikes. [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Closed-circuit television</span> Use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors

Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly transmitted, though it may employ point-to-point, point-to-multipoint (P2MP), or mesh wired or wireless links. Even though almost all video cameras fit this definition, the term is most often applied to those used for surveillance in areas that require additional security or ongoing monitoring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surveillance</span> Monitoring something for the purposes of influencing, protecting, or suppressing it

Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as closed-circuit television (CCTV), or interception of electronically transmitted information like Internet traffic. Increasingly, governments may also obtain consumer data through the purchase of online information, effectively expanding surveillance capabilities through commercially available digital records. It can also include simple technical methods, such as human intelligence gathering and postal interception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Information Awareness Office</span> DARPA division overseeing the "Total Information Awareness" program

The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology to track and monitor terrorists and other asymmetric threats to U.S. national security by achieving "Total Information Awareness" (TIA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Total Information Awareness</span> US mass detection program

Total Information Awareness (TIA) was a mass detection program by the United States Information Awareness Office. It operated under this title from February to May 2003 before being renamed Terrorism Information Awareness.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is an independent nonprofit research center established in 1994 to protect privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic values in the information age. Based in Washington, D.C., their mission is to "secure the fundamental right to privacy in the digital age for all people through advocacy, research, and litigation." EPIC believes that privacy is a fundamental right, the internet belongs to people who use it, and there's a responsible way to use technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance</span> Intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population

Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizations, but it may also be carried out by corporations. Depending on each nation's laws and judicial systems, the legality of and the permission required to engage in mass surveillance varies. It is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes. It is often distinguished from targeted surveillance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facial recognition system</span> Technology capable of matching a face from an image against a database of faces

A facial recognition system is a technology potentially capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services, and works by pinpointing and measuring facial features from a given image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Soghoian</span> American computer scientist (born 1981)

Christopher Soghoian is a privacy researcher and activist. He is currently working for Senator Ron Wyden as the senator’s Senior Advisor for Privacy & Cybersecurity. From 2012 to 2016, he was the principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Big Brother Watch is a non-party British civil liberties and privacy campaigning organisation. It was launched in 2009 by founding director Alex Deane to campaign against state surveillance and threats to civil liberties. It was founded by Matthew Elliott. Since January 2018, Silkie Carlo is the Director.

The Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act was a bill introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2011 that attempted to limit government surveillance using geolocation information such as signals from GPS systems in mobile devices. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Jason Chaffetz. Since its initial proposal in June 2011, the GPS Act awaits consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee as well as the House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ring (company)</span> Home security products manufacturer

Ring LLC is a manufacturer of home security and smart home devices owned by Amazon. It manufactures a titular line of smart doorbells, home security cameras, and alarm systems. It also operates Neighbors, a social network that allows users to discuss local safety and security issues, and share footage captured with Ring products. Via Neighbors, Ring could also provide footage and data to law enforcement agencies to assist in investigations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance in India</span>

Mass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population. Mass surveillance in India includes Surveillance, Telephone tapping, Open-source intelligence, Lawful interception, and surveillance under Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass surveillance in China</span>

Mass surveillance in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese central government to monitor Chinese citizens. It is primarily conducted through the government, although corporate surveillance in connection with the Chinese government has been reported to occur. China monitors its citizens through Internet surveillance, camera surveillance, and through other digital technologies. It has become increasingly widespread and grown in sophistication under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping's administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act</span>

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act is a United States federal law designed to "improve cybersecurity in the United States through enhanced sharing of information about cybersecurity threats, and for other purposes". The law allows the sharing of Internet traffic information between the U.S. government and technology and manufacturing companies. The bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate on July 10, 2014, and passed in the Senate on October 27, 2015. Opponents question CISA's value, believing it will move responsibility from private businesses to the government, thereby increasing vulnerability of personal private information, as well as dispersing personal private information across seven government agencies, including the NSA and local police.

DeepFace is a deep learning facial recognition system created by a research group at Facebook. It identifies human faces in digital images. The program employs a nine-layer neural network with over 120 million connection weights and was trained on four million images uploaded by Facebook users. The Facebook Research team has stated that the DeepFace method reaches an accuracy of 97.35% ± 0.25% on Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW) data set where human beings have 97.53%. This means that DeepFace is sometimes more successful than human beings. As a result of growing societal concerns Meta announced that it plans to shut down Facebook facial recognition system, deleting the face scan data of more than one billion users. This change will represent one of the largest shifts in facial recognition usage in the technology's history. Facebook planned to delete by December 2021 more than one billion facial recognition templates, which are digital scans of facial features. However, it did not plan to eliminate DeepFace which is the software that powers the facial recognition system. The company has also not ruled out incorporating facial recognition technology into future products, according to Meta spokesperson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Police surveillance in New York City</span>

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) actively monitors public activity in New York City, New York, United States. Historically, surveillance has been used by the NYPD for a range of purposes, including against crime, counter-terrorism, and also for nefarious or controversial subjects such as monitoring political demonstrations, activities, and protests, and even entire ethnic and religious groups.

Clearview AI, Inc. is an American facial recognition company, providing software primarily to law enforcement and other government agencies. The company's algorithm matches faces to a database of more than 20 billion images collected from the Internet, including social media applications. Founded by Hoan Ton-That and Richard Schwartz, the company maintained a low profile until late 2019, until its usage by law enforcement was first reported.

DataWorks Plus LLC is a privately held biometrics systems integrator based in Greenville, South Carolina. The company started in 2000 and originally focused on mugshot management, adding facial recognition in 2005. Brad Bylenga is the CEO, and Todd Pastorini is the EVP and GM. Usage of the technology by police departments has resulted in wrongful arrests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyper-surveillance</span> Form of surveillance

Hyper-surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens that specifically utilizes technology and security breaches to access information. As the reliance on the internet economy grows, smarter technology with higher surveillance concerns and snooping means workers to have increased surveillance at their workplace. Hyper surveillance is highly targeted and intricate observation and monitoring among an individual, group of people, or faction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kashmir Hill</span> American writer and journalist (born 1981)

Kashmir Hill is an American technology author and journalist employed by The New York Times. Her book, Your Face Belongs to Us, explores facial recognition technologies

References

  1. ↑ Ho, Catherine (11 January 2015). "Georgetown Law, MIT team up to tackle topic of privacy in the age of big data". Washington Post. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  2. ↑ "Center on Privacy and Technology". www.law.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  3. ↑ "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress - 2nd Session". www.senate.gov. 11 May 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  4. ↑ "The Color of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of the African American Community". www.law.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  5. ↑ "American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century". Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology. Retrieved 2024-06-17.
  6. ↑ "American Dragnet". American Dragnet. Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology. Retrieved 2024-06-17.
  7. ↑ "Digital Dragnets: Examining the Government's Access to Your Personal Data". Congress.gov. Retrieved 2024-06-17.
  8. ↑ "Senators Markey and Wyden Urge ICE to End "Orwellian" Use of Facial Recognition and Surveillance Technology" (Press release). Office of Senator Edward J. Markey. 2022-09-13. Retrieved 2024-06-17.
  9. ↑ "The Perpetual Line-Up". Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. Archived from the original on 2016-10-18. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
  10. ↑ Williams, Patricia J. (7 November 2016). "Americans Are Finding New Ways to Join the Surveillance State". The Nation. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  11. ↑ Brown, Stephen Rex (1 March 2018). "NYPD ripped for abusing facial-recognition tool". NY Daily News. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  12. ↑ "Garbage In. Garbage Out. Face Recognition on Flawed Data". Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. Archived from the original on 2019-05-16. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
  13. ↑ Ng, Alfred. "Police are using flawed data in facial recognition searches, study finds". CNET. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
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