Mass Surveillance

The federal government is encouraging more people to use artificial intelligence. But this blind hype dismisses the harms caused by the new technology.

Our facial information is sensitive – yet companies and individuals can collect, sell and manipulate it without our consent. Australian law must change to protect us all.

The electronic monitoring and surveillance of employees is on the rise as growing numbers of people switch to hybrid and at-home work.

Facial recognition technology has set us on a path to mass surveillance – but it’s not too late to change course.

Australia’s consumer advocacy group Choice identified three Australian retailers who use facial recognition to identify consumers. What are the privacy concerns?

In recent years, Indigenous land defenders have lived under increasing police and state surveillance while far-right, conspiratorial movements have not.

Mass data collection and surveillance have become ubiquitous. For marginalized communities, the stakes of having their privacy violated are high.

Once analysts gain access to our private data, they can use that information to influence and alter our behaviour and choices. If you’re marginalized in some way, the consequences are worse.

In the current pandemic, finding the right balance between the protection of public health and respecting civil liberties has proven to be supremely difficult.

Avoiding drones’ prying eyes can be as complicated as donning a high-tech hoodie and as simple as ducking under a tree.

The COVIDSafe app hasn’t come out of nowhere. The promises of ‘smart city’ data collection may be seductive, but we must always weigh up what we’re being asked to give up in return.

The more we use facial recognition, the more we see its limits and its risks.

Amazon says it’s the “new neighbourhood watch” but Ring may just be another technology that gives police too much data and lets neighbourhoods double down on their biases.

30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, covert surveillance images offer us an unparalleled look at the lives of people trying to escape from the east to the west.

Surveillance software that identifies people from CCTV is eroding human rights and democracy.

Darwin is one of the aspiring ‘smart cities’ that is adopting Chinese technology that can identify and track individuals. Add changes in Australian law, and we have the makings of a surveillance state.

Even governments in democracies with strong traditions of rule of law find themselves tempted to abuse these new abilities.

AI can help make government more efficient – but at what cost? Citizens’ lives could be better or worse, based on how the technology is used.

Surveillance often results in people who are homeless being the target of enforcement measures. But a new study in Cairns shows surveillance can also be used to achieve more positive social outcomes.

Far from setting us free, autonomous vehicles are set to enable new forms of surveillance and oppression.

The government’s Snoopers’ Charter didn’t permit blanket indiscriminate data retention, the Court of Appeal recently ruled. I strongly disagree.

A scholar asks: If two acts of violence kill similar numbers of people, have similar effects on victims and communities, and spread fear and terror, should they not be seen as equally abhorrent?

What governments and companies think they know about us – whether or not it’s accurate – has real power over our actual lives.

UK politicians are planning very different approaches to data privacy, security and surveillance.

In the 10 years since Google Street View launched, the platform has provided ample fodder for artists, who have used it to comment on surveillance, poverty and gentrification.