Video and data surveillance by public and private entities.
Civil Surveillance (40)
Find narratives by ethical themes or by technologies.
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- 5 min
- Kinolab
- 2008
Memo lives in a small Mexican rural village with his father. This narrative reveals that access to water in the area surrounding their village is limited; one company oversees a watering hole where people pay to replenish their supply. This business, Del Rio Water Company, builds dams and other means of controlling the water supply, and uses drones to protect these against suspected aqua-terrorists who might seek to take back control of it.
- Kinolab
- 2008
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- 5 min
- Kinolab
- 2008
Drones and Gatekeeping Natural Resources
Memo lives in a small Mexican rural village with his father. This narrative reveals that access to water in the area surrounding their village is limited; one company oversees a watering hole where people pay to replenish their supply. This business, Del Rio Water Company, builds dams and other means of controlling the water supply, and uses drones to protect these against suspected aqua-terrorists who might seek to take back control of it.
Discussion Prompts:
How might the centralization of technological power and capital lead to gatekeeping of natural and vital resources like water? How might drones and other technologies de-sensitize profiteers to those whom they are hurting? What happens when technology is used and abused by those who don’t have the best interests of all people at heart? How does technology cause and reinforce changes to our environment? Could surveillance technology such as this potentially be used for positive conservation purposes?
Movie Title:
Sleep Dealer: Del Rio Water Company-
- 5 min
- The Guardian
- 2019
Biometrics technology will be implemented as a means of gaining access to a residential building in Brooklyn, causing pushback among the tenants who prefer to keep their data private, especially considering the lack of legal regulation surrounding the technology. Specifically, there is growing fear that the facial recognition database could be sold to or abused by law enforcement.
- The Guardian
- 2019
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- 5 min
- The Guardian
- 2019
New York tenants fight as landlords embrace Biometrics cameras
Biometrics technology will be implemented as a means of gaining access to a residential building in Brooklyn, causing pushback among the tenants who prefer to keep their data private, especially considering the lack of legal regulation surrounding the technology. Specifically, there is growing fear that the facial recognition database could be sold to or abused by law enforcement.
Discussion Prompts:
How have biometrics changed the landscape and ideology of the security industry? How does this story fit in with other information or narratives you have read about the use of facial recognition?
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- 5 min
- The Guardian
- 2021
Amazon’s Ring devices are creating a private network of video surveillance that can be accessed by governments and other public entities without a warrant.
- The Guardian
- 2021
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- 5 min
- The Guardian
- 2021
Amazon’s Ring is the largest civilian surveillance network the US has ever seen
Amazon’s Ring devices are creating a private network of video surveillance that can be accessed by governments and other public entities without a warrant.
Discussion Prompts:
How might home security devices impact citizenship? What are the risks of a ubiquitous deployment of home surveillance systems? How does this narrative demonstrate the compounding of human and machine biases?
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- 7 min
- Vice
- 2021
In New Orleans, a city known for its history of racist policing, grassroots activists turned to precedent from other states to ban police use of surveillance and facial recognition technology through both public and private cameras.
- Vice
- 2021
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- 7 min
- Vice
- 2021
How Musicians and Sex Workers Beat Facial Recognition in New Orleans
In New Orleans, a city known for its history of racist policing, grassroots activists turned to precedent from other states to ban police use of surveillance and facial recognition technology through both public and private cameras.
Discussion Prompts:
What responsibility do firms like Palantir have to make sure that their technology is used for undeniable good? Can cities like Oakland or New Orleans become the norm in terms of privacy from facial recognition while such firms exist?
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- 15 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Detective Shazia Akhand is assigned to investigate the case of a man who was hit by a pizza truck in the street to help him build a case. She uses a brain-computer interface to read the memories of both the man hit by the truck and other witnesses, where the vague, abstract images are projected onto a screen. One of these witnesses includes Mia, a serial killer whose former crimes are revealed during her interview. In order to erase any footage or evidence of her murders, Mia continues her killing spree by wiping out Shazia and her family. However, Mia is eventually caught through the memories of an unlikely source.
- Kinolab
- 2017
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- 15 min
- Kinolab
- 2017
Digital Memory Projection and Walking Surveillance Cameras
Detective Shazia Akhand is assigned to investigate the case of a man who was hit by a pizza truck in the street to help him build a case. She uses a brain-computer interface to read the memories of both the man hit by the truck and other witnesses, where the vague, abstract images are projected onto a screen. One of these witnesses includes Mia, a serial killer whose former crimes are revealed during her interview. In order to erase any footage or evidence of her murders, Mia continues her killing spree by wiping out Shazia and her family. However, Mia is eventually caught through the memories of an unlikely source.
Discussion Prompts:
Should police or detectives be able to view memories for interrogation reasons? Where should the line be drawn in these cases? What are the issues with tasking precise digital technologies with extracting and showing abstract memories? How could this technology be manipulated to make subjective memories seem objective? How might this sort of technology makes witnesses to crimes more targeted? How is this concept similar and different to the idea that anyone could accidentally or intentionally be capturing anything on a phone camera? Should technology be created that essentially allows anyone to be a walking surveillance camera?
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- 6 min
- Kinolab
- 2011
After a mysterious global outbreak of an unknown virus, several health organizations, including the CDC, get to work figuring out the origins of the virus and how to defeat it. They begin by digitally analysing the genome of one strain of the virus to understand how it infects the human body and how to vaccinate against it. They then use surveillance cameras to track the movements of Beth, one of the first known cases of the virus. At the end of the film, an omniscient point of view reveals how Beth originally got the virus.
- Kinolab
- 2011
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- 6 min
- Kinolab
- 2011
Digital Analysis of Composition and Spread of Viruses
After a mysterious global outbreak of an unknown virus, several health organizations, including the CDC, get to work figuring out the origins of the virus and how to defeat it. They begin by digitally analysing the genome of one strain of the virus to understand how it infects the human body and how to vaccinate against it. They then use surveillance cameras to track the movements of Beth, one of the first known cases of the virus. At the end of the film, an omniscient point of view reveals how Beth originally got the virus.
Discussion Prompts:
On a macrocosmic scale, have digital technologies made humans better in terms of warding off viruses? Does being able to get genomic data about viruses more quickly always equate to quick eradication of a disease? Are global pandemics large enough emergencies to potentially violate the privacy of those who spread them through means such as surveillance programs? What about the spread of viruses is impossible for even digital technologies to capture?