Privacy and Locational Surveillance: The New Paradigm and the New Challenge

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Privacy and Locational Surveillance  The New
Paradigm and the New Challenge

• Lecture to the University of Hong Kong Law
  School, May 12th, 2005

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Colin J. BennettDepartment of Political
Science, University of Victoria, B.C.
Canadacjb_at_uvic.cahttp//web.uvic.ca/poli/bennet
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A Shift in Paradigm

• Who we are (identity-based issues)
• What we do (behavioral-based issues)
• Where we are (locational-based issues)

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What is meant by mobility?

• Devices may be mobile when
• In a different location at any given time from
  that which they were in at one or more previous
  times
• In any location from which transmission to
  another device is possible
• When currently moving relative to the earths
  surface (e.g. passenger in a train, plane, car)
• When easily portable
• (Clarke, 2002)

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What is meant by locational information?
(www.ietf.org)

• Geo-spatial (Position on the globe defined by
  longitude, latitude, altitude)
• Civic (Position determined by political decision
  about borders and boundaries time-zone,
  country, street, postal address)
• Descriptive (Type of location school, hotel,
  airport, hospital etc.)

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How may location be determined?

• END-SYSTEM BASED
• GPS Chip in handset
• Wireless card in PC
• NETWORK BASED
• Ethernet switch
• 802.11 Access Point

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Who may receive locational information?

• Personally known e.g. employer, family members
• Institutionally known e.g. Emergency call
  center, AAA service, Pizza delivery service
• Unknown

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The Assessment of Risk

• Locational information is contextual what other
  behaviors might be inferred from knowing
  location?
• The highest risk?
• Where descriptive locational information about
  identifiable individuals is being tracked by a
  network-based system by recipients unknown to the
  individual
• The lowest risk?
• Where basic geo-spatial coordinates are tracked
  through an end-user application by people known
  to the individual

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The Data Subjects at Risk

• Those in emergency (E-911)
• Mobile Workers (truck drivers, couriers, postal
  workers etc.)
• www.trackem.com
• www.fleetboss.com
• www.airiq.com
• The Elderly and Disabled (e.g. Alzheimers
  sufferers)
• www.benefon.com
• Children and Teenagers
• www.drivetronics.com
• www.teenarrivealive.com
• Rental car clients
• Acme Car Rental Case
• Users of Event Data Recorder of Black Box
  technology
• Canada R. v. Gaulthier (2003)
• Canada R. v. Brander (2003)
• Prisoners and Offenders
• Pro-Tech Monitoring www.ptm.com

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The Emerging Privacy Issues

• The Consent of Vulnerable Data Subjects
• The difficulty of ascertaining sensitivity
• Rules sensitive to location and future location
• Liability issues
• All-in-one opt-in solutions not possible
• Location operates on a continuum of granularity
• Data quality issues

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Conclusions

• The routine nature of locational surveillance
• Locational data is being aggressively sought by
  law enforcement and by business
• Locational information is collected with
  different degrees of precision
• Challenges to traditional fair information
  practices doctrine