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September 25, 2023: Surveillance in the subway, the store, the stadium, and the sky

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Today: Surveillance in the subway, the store, the stadium, and the sky

New surveillance systems are being launched every day, with no input from citizens, and no recourse for those who are inaccurately profiled. We’re surveying newly kinds of surveillance in the subway, the store, the stadium, and the sky.

The subway

• 400-Pound N.Y.P.D. Robot Gets Tryout in Times Square Subway Station (NYT, Sep 22, 2023):

The K5, described as a “fully autonomous” security robot, is part of a push by the mayor for more law-enforcement technology, which has raised concerns among privacy advocates.

... [Albert Fox] Cahn said he was wary that the K5 might eventually employ facial recognition technology. “If the mayor thinks there aren’t enough cameras in Times Square, then he’s more out of touch than I realized,” Mr. Cahn said. “It’s more surveillance theater,” he added. “This is a mayor who doubles down on public relations stunts rather than public safety any chance he gets.”

• From Joseph Cox at the newly launched 404 Media, I Tracked an NYC Subway Rider's Movements with an MTA ‘Feature’ (Aug 30, 2023):

With their consent, I had entered the rider’s credit card information—data that is often easy to buy from criminal marketplaces, or which might be trivial for an abusive partner to obtain—and punched that into the MTA site for OMNY, the subway’s contactless payments system. After a few seconds, the site churned out the rider’s travel history for the past 7 days, no other verification required.

The news presents a significant privacy risk from a feature that is supposedly designed for individuals to check their own travel history, but which in reality is wide open to abuse.

The store

• The Telegraph (Sep 17, 2023) reports that UK retailers are scanning customers’ faces while they shop.

The stated aim of the facerec is to stop known shoplifters:

If your face is matched, managers at the shop will receive a silent alert and a picture of you, the suspected thief. Within seconds, you would find yourself shadowed by a chirpy member of staff, pleasantly informing you: “I’ll be right behind you if you need any help.”

. . . Business is booming. Gordon says Facewatch has doubled in size in each of the last four years and has licensed its technology in hundreds of shops. The British company works with the likes of Budgens, Costcutter, House of Fraser and Spar.

. . . Madeleine Stone, of the campaign group Big Brother Watch, is concerned about the slow creep of facial recognition technology.

“It is unacceptable to have police and private companies writing their own rules on the use of such a powerful surveillance technology,” she says. “We urgently need a democratic, lawful approach to the role of facial biometrics in Britain, but so far there hasn’t even been a parliamentary debate on it.”

The stadium

• Philadelphia Phillies roll out facial authentication to let fans skip lines at Citizens Bank Park (Aug 21, 2023): “There will be a special lane available only at the first base gate that will have a facial recognition scanner.” Now is the carrot, later comes the stick.

The sky

• N.Y.P.D. Will Use Drones to Monitor Labor Day Celebrations (NYT, Sep 1, 2023):

Mr. Cahn noted that while police forces have long been allowed to use planes and helicopters for surveillance, the use of low-flying drones — some of which can record audio — to monitor a barbecue raised questions about New Yorkers’ constitutional rights against unlawful searches. . . . Mr. Cahn [continued that] a drone was not the same as a human responder who could render aid or break up a fight.

“Camera systems sometimes can be helpful in investigating crimes, but they’re really ineffective as a deterrent,” Mr. Cahn said. “We continue to have police peddling the myth that their technology somehow will magically keep us safe, when in fact, it’s long term structural investments in public safety that are proven to be effective.”

See also: New York police will use drones to monitor backyard parties this weekend, spurring privacy concerns (AP, Aug 31, 2023).

Google’s spyware

• On Mastodon, by Marcus Hutchins (Sep 6, 2023): “For anyone unaware, Google Chrome is currently rolling out an update that track your interests based on browsing history, then share them with 3rd party websites. The notification page makes it sound like they added a new privacy feature, but in actuality they automatically enrolled you into their tracking system and you have to go and manually opt out.” Notice: in Google’s language, surveillance is called “privacy.”

See also the Ars Technica article (Sep 7, 2023).

Cars

• It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy (Mozilla, Sep 6, 2023): “Car brands quietly entered the data business by turning their vehicles into powerful data-gobbling machines. Machines that . . . have an unmatched power to watch, listen, and collect information about what you do and where you go in your car.”

Tesla came in dead last, out of all car makers, for especially bad privacy practices.

But also:

Nissan earned its second-to-last spot for collecting some of the creepiest categories of data we have ever seen. It’s worth reading the review in full, but you should know it includes your “sexual activity.” Not to be out done, Kia also mentions they can collect information about your “sex life” in their privacy policy.

Surveillance (“smart”) devices

• Like privacy? Then smart devices are a dumb idea, reports the Register (Sep 7, 2023):

And while smart speakers are only supposed to listen after being invoked with a “wake” phrase, their data collection and who they share that with may surprise. For instance, researchers found that Bose products are shuffling info off to the Meta social media empire, meaning owners are giving data to Zuckercorp regardless of whether they have a Facebook account.

. . . Google was found to be sucking up data from every smart camera or doorbell looked at, while Blink and Ring devices also beamed it back to the Amazon mothership. “Google’s Nest product demands full name, email, date of birth and gender.”

. . . Washing machines are smart now too, apparently, and the things they want to know about their owners have nothing to do with spin cycles. For example, LG and Hoover products don’t allow use of their apps without knowing how old you are. LG was the worst for prying, wanting “name, date of birth, email, phone contact book, precise location and phone number,” while Hoover demanded “users’ contacts and phone numbers on Android devices.” For Miele products, precise location tracking is enabled by default and required to use the app.

Surveillance TVs from LG, Samsung, and Sony are also listed.

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