Rethinking Law and Order: Navigating Citizen Rights in an Age of Uberveillance

Increasingly, the personal and work-related smart devices we use are packed with sensors that record the who (identity), where (location), when (time) and how (mode of transport/condition) of all our interactions. Knowing with some level of predictability, where a person is and with whom he or she is interacting — a situation called “uberveillance” — has obvious commercial and security value. User convenience and law enforcement application have been major drivers for collecting huge quantities of data on consumers and citizens. But uberveillance has important and sometimes troubling implications for citizen rights and the rule of law.

In this New Tools talk, Katina Michael will address issues related to law, regulation and policy as they pertain to real-time monitoring and tracking of things and people. She will consider colliding stakeholder perspectives in demonstrated case law, examine the race to go beyond intelligence toward evidence and ask fundamental questions about the rights of citizens. Is the search warrant process broken? Are service providers keeping too much information about their customers? How do citizens maintain their privacy? Social, technological, legal and ethical principles and processes will be highlighted throughout this case-based talk toward a holistic approach to information management in practice.