The Technologies
In recent decades, law enforcement has seen a boom in surveillance technology. Today, public spaces are filled with cameras that can recognize faces and read license plates. Cell phone tracking can pinpoint exactly where people are.
Spyware and monitoring tools on our phones and computers can track everything we do online. By analyzing our communications data, the authorities can see our web browsing habits, our friends, and sensitive details about our daily lives. Artificial intelligence allows law enforcement to quickly sort through massive amounts of data and make decisions about policing.
In our digital world, these new technologies allow for collecting huge amounts of information, storing this information for long periods, and retrieving it for various purposes.
These developments have had, and will continue to have, a huge impact on our right to privacy, our freedom, and the health of our democracy.
FRT - Facial Recognition Technology
Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) is an artificial intelligence technology for biometric identification. This technology claims to enable highly probable, unambiguous identification of a person by processing biometric information and comparing it to information extracted from an identified image. Facial recognition systems can be used in two ways: The first is to verify the identity of a known person (for example, when unlocking a smartphone – the phone captures the face of the person looking at it and compares it to the stored facial features of the phone's owner). The second is meant to identify an unknown person by comparing their image to an existing image database (for example, a police officer using the system to identify an unknown suspect who was photographed by one of the surveillance cameras in a public space).
Cellular Positioning and Use of Communications Data
Because of how mobile phones communicate with cell towers, cellular companies know our exact geographic location at any given moment. This positioning happens regardless of the phone's GPS function. This technology also allows for "reverse positioning:” instead of locating a specific person, it's possible to extract location data or other communications data from all subscribers in a particular area, regardless of whether they are suspected of anything.
In addition to location data, cellular companies and internet providers collect other information about a person's computer or phone use patterns: names of people they've called, websites they've visited, people they've emailed, and more – all of this is called "communications data.”
A person's location data is sensitive personal information that can reveal much about them. Additionally, even though communications data doesn't include the content of conversations or messages, it still provides extensive personal and sensitive information.
Spyware for Wiretapping or Covert Searches on Computers/Phones
Spyware is a malware that exploits security vulnerabilities in computers or mobile phones to take control of them, gain access to personal and sensitive information, and monitor a person's online activities without their knowledge or consent. Taking over the device allows for snooping through messages, emails, photos, and even taking control remotely of things like the camera or speaker and sending messages from the phone. Spyware can access personal and sensitive information from the past and track the victim’s every keystroke or screen touch, any screen that opens, and all information transmitted to or from the device – as if the person using the spyware were physically holding the phone.
AI – Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are now embedded in a wide range of areas of life worldwide, including law enforcement. Unlike calculators or standard computer programs, AI-based systems are designed to operate with varying degrees of autonomy and to adapt as they work. They are fed by huge databases, and their output is not based on a known formula. Instead, the output is a prediction, the probability of a certain outcome, content, recommendations, or decisions, which is based on identifying connections and patterns from data previously entered into the system. The system's output is usually received in a "black box," which cannot be understood or explained by the system operator.
Although AI contributes significantly to improving and speeding up decision-making processes and data research, relying on it for decision-making purposes, especially sensitive decisions involving human rights, raises a long list of legal and moral questions.
ALPR – Automatic License Plate Recognition
ALPR systems use advanced image processing technologies that detect, track, photograph, and identify vehicle license plates in real-time. This system creates a database of vehicle locations, as well as any drivers it identifies at different times. This technology can be used in several ways: to receive real-time alerts about "wanted" vehicles and drivers, to obtain sensitive personal information about the locations of citizens traveling on roads in real-time with the click of a button, and also as "time machines" used to reconstruct a person's past location, route, and sometimes even contacts they had with others.
Photo Surveillance Systems in Public Spaces
Photo surveillance systems include a vast number of cameras scattered throughout public spaces that record the movements of passersby. The cameras transfer all of the visual information—photos and videos—to a control center and databases. These systems enable real-time monitoring by a person sitting in the control center, or the retrieval and processing of information from the databases.