Controversies in the Data Society 2020
https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/CIDS/2020+Week+1+Biometrics+and+Policy
How
do anti-surveillance movements work in context? This paper traces the
formation of two such movements: opposition to proposals for national
biometric identification systems in the United Kingdom (2004-2010) and
in Israel (2008-present). In both countries, opposition movements were
led by academic experts in computer science, information science, and
law, along with civil rights activists. Ultimately the British system
was cancelled in 2010, and the Israeli system was implemented in 2017.
Although
literature on surveillance and society tends to suggest that privacy
concerns drive resistance to surveillance, the Israeli and British
campaigns downplayed this topic. Data security concerns dominated the
Israeli campaign, while costs dominated in the UK. Drawing on
ethnographic and oral history interviews with Israeli and British
activists, analyses of reports they produced, and concepts in Science
and Technology Studies, the paper shows that their campaigns constantly
negotiated tensions between ideals, like privacy, and pragmatism, the
best way to achieve their goals. Both groups combined activism with
expertise in different ways in order to build public and political
credibility, and influence policies and technological designs for their
countries’ respective systems. By comparing these movements, the paper
also considers how these cases may lend insights into the ways publics
participate in surveillance policymaking across national contexts.
Michelle is currently a fifth year student in the HASTS program at MIT, supervised by Jennifer Light. Her research examines the history and social dimensions of national biometric identification systems in Israel and the UK.