Increasingly the answer to this question is “yes.” From the supermarket parking lot to a busy intersection, if you are in public, you are very likely under the gaze of video surveillance.
This raises important questions: Who is watching? Why? How can we prevent abuses of this technology?
Under the leadership of Clinical Professor Deirdre Mulligan, students at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the Boalt School of Law are striving to answer these questions while working to fill a gaping policy vacuum. David E. Snyder, a third-year student at Boalt and clinic participant says, “A lot of cities are really increasing use of cameras without a lot of thought about preventing nefarious uses.”
Snyder and other students have helped communities as disparate as Fresno and Richmond, California, to assess the impact of video surveillance on residents, and to develop clear guidelines for its use.
As cameras become more sophisticated, the issues and potential solutions become more complex. “These cases are at the boundaries of law and technological development,” explains Mulligan. In fact, the clinic frequently works with the College of Engineering and School of Information to research the uses and abuses of surveillance, and to develop technological as well as legal safeguards.
This semester, the clinic will be working with the Center for Information Technology in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of San Francisco’s surveillance program — research that Mulligan believes is crucial to the debate. “It’s not just about privacy,” she says, “it’s about whether this is the right technology for the job.”
