Information is used throughout the film to identify and verify individuals within a system. Citizens are expected to reveal some of their private information to maintain the safety of the society, and prove to be law abiding citizens. The minimal private information of persons would be stored in the CAB’s public record. That data is also used to sort individuals and first borns from any siblings. The public has a clear expectation that the information on their bracelets would be used to access checkpoints, purchase goods and enter their homes.However throughout the film we see cases of data collection unbeknownst to the population, violating the people’s rights and safety.
Location based services have been a key to locate and track the position of the Settman family. Modern cases of location based services would include the Enhanced 911 mandate, which, “requires wireless carriers to be able to locate, within 50 to 100 meters, any wireless phone calling 911…” The goal was to allow responders to locate individuals who could not respond [3]. In the movie we can see the implementation of the policy within the issued identification bracelets carried by the majority of the population. The GPS data of the population was used to track and hunt down the Settmans through private incentives. The Settman families comfort in their home, suggesting that the public expects that data is not collected within their home, and outside city entry points, and only accessed during times of emergency. CAB’s use of data outside of the intended purpose violates the privacy and safety of individuals, and what information they expect to be taken.
We can see cases in which Friday was able to datamine through the GPS data and map out the location of CAB officers relative to an overhead view of building schematics. To be able to parse through that information and identify those officers, there would have to be data surrounding a person’s occupation to “single out” those people. This is similar to how Target is able to identify individuals who are pregnant, and use that information to send offers related to that.In Order to do make such analysis, Target assigns individuals to a Guest ID, which holds “ demographic information like your age, whether you are married and have kids, which part of town you live in, how long it takes you to drive to the store, your estimated salary, whether you’ve moved recently, what credit cards you carry in your wallet and what Web sites you visit.” Additionally, “Target can buy data about your ethnicity, job history, [and] the magazines you read...”[1]. Instead of a private company, these records would be included in the CAB database. What is the purpose of having someone’s work history? How does that help the CAB to enforce the One Child Allocation Act? For the CAB and thus the government to have this information, is another instance of the violation of the 4th Amendment Rights of US citizens.
The Settman have an “End of the Day Meeting” in which a video recording and information is shared among the sisters as to what occurred. This occurred throughout their lives, and school and their professional careers, in public settings. Students expect that they would not be recorded. Within the company setting, any data disclosed was expected to be distributed only to the members present. In the story’s content, the information should have gone to only the singular individual Karen Settman, not the whole Settman Family. Even though these spaces were publicly accessible, because the people in those spaces “...reasonably [expected] his/her actions to be private...”, [2] it is unlawful for the sisters to have those videos.
References
Duhigg, C. (2012). How companies learn your secrets. The New York Times, 16(2), 1-16.
Fiatal, R. A. (1989). Lights, camera, action: Video surveillance and the Fourth Amendment (Part 1). FBI L. Enforcement Bull., 58, 23.
Warrior, J., McHenry, E., & McGee, K. (2003). They know where you are [location detection]. IEEE Spectrum, 40(7), 20-25.
.Lights Camera Action, Video Surveillance
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