IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Summer 2014 - 57
Knowledge and Opinion of
Privacy Regulation
When we asked people questions
about their knowledge of privacy
regulation for video surveillance,
we found an interesting result.
relatively few participants stated
that they knew that there were privacy regulations relating to video
surveillance, and even fewer knew
what those regulations were. However, almost everyone who was
asked stated that they felt this type
of surveillance should be covered
by regulation, and many said they
assumed that it was. Participants
generally noted that they wished
to know whether an organization
was compliant with privacy regulation, and some also wished to
know if an organization had ever
had a complaint filed against them
or had been found in violation of
privacy obligations.
The primary means by which
organizations inform citizens about
the presence of video surveillance
is by posting signs, so we asked our
participants if they had noticed signs
about the video surveillance in the
areas where interviews took place.
Few had noticed signs in our interview locations, but many mentioned
seeing signs on commercial premises when they entered. These signs
stated that they are being monitored
by video camera "for [their] safety"
or possibly "for theft prevention."
Most believed that the signs were
of the appropriate means to inform
them about the presence of surveillance, although some were critical
of the content and visibility of signs
they had seen in the past. Some
participants specifically mentioned
issues with signage location and size
stating "I have seen small miniscule signs under those set of stairs"
while others describe the content as
"incredibly vague."
In general, although there was
a lack of information about the
existence and nature of privacy
regulation around video surveillance, there was a clear agreement among participants that this
kind of surveillance should be
regulated, and that it is important for organizations to comply
with whatever privacy regulation
might exist.
Information Needs and Wants
When the participants were asked
what they would like to know about
camera surveillance and the way
it is regulated, most participants
stated that they would like to know
where surveillance is taking place
education about the ways camera surveillance are used and can be used.
The findings also shed light on both
the advantages and disadvantages of
camera surveillance, and about the
current set of regulations that provide
citizens with rights to their personal
visual information.
To this end, a public forum was
also held as part of this project to
contribute to public knowledge
about these issues. In an ongoing
and iterative fashion, the informa-
Does the public realize there
is a need for concern?
asking questions such as "what area
is under surveillance?" and "what is
the reasoning?" for conducting the
surveillance. Additionally, there
was some interest in knowing more
about specific organizational policies around surveillance, particularly in terms of retention policies,
meaning how images were stored,
how long they were kept, and who
had access to their personal information that was being collected.
A smaller portion of participants
were also inquiring about how to
contact the owner or operator of the
surveillance cameras.
Amid the participant's inquiries,
there was also a clear sense of what
qualifies as a legitimate use of surveillance data, such as in identifying
a thief, and what participants felt
were illegitimate uses. In particular, participants often uncomfortable with the idea that surveillance
cameras might be used for customer
tracking or profiling in retail outlets,
or for citizen profiling more generally in public settings. All agreed
that they would like to know if they
were subject to surveillance for the
purpose of these kinds of social sorting activities.
While our findings are limited in
generalizability by our small samplesize and single city site, some themes
did emerge from our interviews. Our
findings point to a need for public
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE
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SuMMEr 2014
tion we have learned from our participants about their opinions and
information needs regarding video
surveillance has also been used to
inform our participatory design
efforts. We will now turn to a discussion of the challenges, motivations, and rationale for designing
the SurveillanceWatch application,
and describe the prototype.
Crowd-Sourcing the
Public Display
Private Sector Privacy
Non-Compliance and
Public Ignorance
The troubling disjunction between
the widespread privacy non-compliance of private sector video surveillance operations [2] and the
similarly widespread lack of knowledge among surveilled subjects who
desire more information and greater
legal compliance, poses a significant
challenge for those concerned for
civil liberties and information rights.
What are the appropriate responses
when the conventional mechanisms
of liberal democratic governance
have so far demonstrably failed?
Canadian privacy law as applied
to the private sector is unusual
in being based originally on an
attempt at self-regulation. The
Canadian Standards Association
(CSA) in 1996 issued the Model
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