EFF Internship Week 2: Facial Recognition and Privacy

By on June 2, 2013 in Internet, Privacy

[Ed: This is the second in a series of posts by Natasha Duarte, who is blogging about her summer internship experience at EFF.] This week I researched how state law enforcement agencies use facial recognition software to track individuals. I’m helping EFF prepare public records requests to gather more information on the facial recognition and biometric tracking programs being deployed throughout the United States.

If you’ve ever had your picture taken for a driver’s license or other photo ID, your face is probably in a database used by the DMV, state law enforcement agencies, and the FBI for almost limitless tracking purposes.  Some agencies use mobile systems in the field to detect a person’s facial measurements, fingerprints, and other biometrics. The system automatically scans a database and matches the person’s face with any other information the government has access to.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reportedly developing systems that will scan crowds in stadiums or other areas, matching faces in the crowd with these extensive databases. While it might help track criminal suspects, the curre

nt technology is susceptible to mismatches, and the databases include photos of individuals who have never been arrested, charged, or convicted.

Despite its dangerous privacy implications, the use of facial recognition technology by the government remains unregulated. In Arizona, facial recognition systems developed to find “terrorists” reportedly have been used to track protestors associated with the Occupy movement and to do instant immigration background checks at traffic stops.

But the most detailed facial recognition database is not the FBI’s—it’s Facebook’s. Facebook already uses facial recognition software (that’s how it knows whom to tag when you upload a photo). Some proponents of facial recognition programs have suggested that the government should incorporate social network photos into its databases. Unlike most frontal driver’s license photos, Facebook photos reveal what a person looks like from different angles, how tall she is, how she dresses, whom she hangs out with, and where she hangs out. Facebook has not indicated that it would cooperate with requests to search its database, but access to social network data could be a powerful and dangerous tool for law enforcement.

Living in San Francisco:

 

Dancers in a parade at Carnaval, an annual Latin American and Caribbean festival that takes place in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Dancers in a parade at Carnaval, an annual Latin American and Caribbean festival that takes place in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Carnaval, a Latin American and Caribbean festival, took place in my neighborhood last weekend. I love how many different cultures intersect in San Francisco, especially in the Mission District. Here’s a photo I took of some of the dancers in the Carnaval parade.

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Greetings from San Francisco: A UNC Student’s Summer Internship at EFF

By on May 29, 2013 in First Amendment, Internet

I’m very excited that one of our students is spending her summer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, funded in part by the Center’s Public Interest Grant Program.  Natasha Duarte has graciously volunteered to blog about her summer experience at EFF. Here is her first missive:

On May 24, I witnessed a small victory in the fight against copyright trolls. I attended a hearing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in the case AF Holdings, LLC v. Trinh. The judge ordered the plaintiff, AF Holdings, to pay the defendant $9,425 for attorneys’ fees.

Copyright trolls are companies that buy the rights to content online and then sue unsuspecting Internet users who allegedly use the copyrighted content without a license. AF Holdings is a “porn troll”—it buys the copyrights to pornographic films and then searches for IP addresses that download the films. It sues Internet users, often in large groups, for massive amounts of damages in order to pressure defendants into settling quickly and to avoid going to court altogether.

AF Holdings was represented by Prenda Law, which has been linked to other similar copyright troll cases and was recently sanctioned by a federal judge for abusing the copyright system.

Like many other copyright troll cases, no decision on the merits was reached because the case was dismissed after AF Holdings decided not to pay the costs of continuing with the case. However, the judge’s order granting the motion to dismiss acknowledged that the there was a “reasonable probability” that AF Holdings would lose because its evidence of infringement was “weak.”

On a more fun note, I experienced Bay to Breakers, an annual race followed by a massive outdoor party in San Francisco’s Panhandle where everyone wears crazy costumes (or nothing at all) in a display of free expression.

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Look for additional posts by Natasha next week.

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Students Presenting at AEJMC Conference in August

By on May 20, 2013 in Copyright, First Amendment, Internet, Journalism

Nearly 25 percent of the media law and policy research papers accepted for presentation at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) were written by UNC students.

Five students had six papers accepted for presentation in the Law and Policy Division at the AEJMC convention to be held in August in Washington, D.C.  All paper submissions were blind-reviewed in competition with both student and faculty-authored papers.

No other university had as many as six papers accepted in the Law and Policy Division.

These are the students and the titles of their papers:

  • Jesse Abdenour (J-School Ph.D. student):  “Documenting Fair Use: Has the Statement of Best Practices Loosened the Fair Use Reins for Documentary Filmmakers?”
  • Kevin Delaney (M.A./J.D. student): “The State of Indecency Law: A Positive and Normative Evaluation of the Fox Cases”
  • Karen McIntyre (J-School Ph.D. student): “Droned Journalism: Using Unmanned Aircraft to Gather News and When Such Use Might Invade Privacy”
  • Hysosun Kim (J-School Ph.D. student):  “New Media?  New Guidelines?  FDA Regulation of Online DTC Prescription Drug Promotion”
  • Elizabeth Woolery (J-School Ph.D. student):  “The Press, the Public, and Capital Punishment: California First Amendment Coalition and the Development of a First Amendment Right to Witness Executions”
  • Elizabeth Woolery (J-School Ph.D. student):  “When (News)gathering Isn’t Enough:  The Right to Gather Information in Public Places”

As the titles reflect, these papers present legal research on some of the most pressing and interesting legal and constitutional issues in today’s complex and evolving media environment.

Congratulations, young legal scholars!

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Carolina Law CLE Session: Media Law in the Digital Age

By on May 2, 2013 in Defamation, First Amendment, Internet

Next Wednesday, May 8, I’ll be presenting a continuing legal education (CLE) session in Wilmington, NC at the New Hanover County Executive Development Center.  The topic will be “Media Law in the Digital Age: Internet Defamation and other Digital Torts.”  Here is the description from the law school’s website:

With the advent of the Internet, everyone is a publisher today. Whether it is a company blog, Twitter or even Facebook, these publishing platforms can open you and your clients up to a potential lawsuit. Professor David S. Ardia will review the most recent case law on this evolving topic and share best practices for limiting liability and responding to claims involving speech on the Internet. UNC School of Law invites you to join Professor Ardia and other Carolina grads for this “lunch and learn” session as we explore the impact the Internet is having on media law, with a particular emphasis on libel, privacy, and other digital torts.

If you are in the Wilmington area, I hope you will come. It starts at noon and (bonus!) includes lunch. To register, go to the law school’s event page.

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Center Staffers Honored

By on April 23, 2013 in Center for Media Law and Policy

Three students who work in the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy were honored at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s annual awards ceremony on April 22, 2013.

Liz Woolery, a second-year Ph.D. student, won the John B. Adams Award for Excellence in Mass Communication Law.  Liz plans events and does communications work for the center

John Remensperger was honored as the year’s outstanding master’s graduate.  He designed and maintains the center’s website.

Julia Wall received the Stuart Sechriest Award, which is given to the top undergraduate photojournalism student.  She was the center’s photographer this semester.

Congratulations to our wonderful students!

 

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