The presentation that I was most concerned about was Catherine Crump’s on police surveillance technology. I knew it was a lot, but I had not realized quite how much we are being tracked in our day to day lives. That was back in 2014 too. It is just speculation, but one can only imagine how much more sophisticated tracking technology has become over the past ten years.
I think what to do about this situation from a policy perspective is tricky, though. There are obvious safety benefits in the intended uses of the technology they use to track us. The automatic plate scanner Crump talked about are really good for knowing when people run red lights, speed, or park in illegal places. They are also good for finding known criminals or stolen vehicles. Whatever policy is implemented would ideally retain those benefits while also preserving peoples’ privacy.
I would recommend a method like ones that I have read in the EULAs of many software products. Oftentimes if a company collects your data (and is not planning to use it maliciously), they have a policy that it will be deleted after a specified amount of time. For an example, I would propose a policy that the data collected by police agencies must be deleted within 30 days unless the subject of that data is under an active warrant, on a watch list, or similar. This would keep the criminal catching uses of the technology, while minimally sacrificing the privacy of normal civilians.
Unfortunately, there is not very much we can do to protect our privacy as civilians. Our smartphones report our data to corporations, cell towers, and routers constantly, so we are always willingly being tracked. Also unfortunately, smartphones are just too much of a necessity to give up in the modern world. We are always being watched, and that is the way we like it.
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