Cute Kittens or Police Surveillance?
- By Stefan Hammond
- September 19, 2022
A new reality TV show proposes to present video footage from embedded cameras as one of the Big Tech players creates an entertainment product suited for the short attention spans of 2022. But data privacy advocates have concerns — and ramifications for legislation loom.
Ring around reality
Last month, Deadline reported that American comedienne Wanda Sykes would soon appear in a “series that features videos taken from Ring doorbells”. Amazon's Ring devices are part of the Internet of Things: interconnected devices that share data over the Net and are typically controlled by app.
Sykes “is to host Ring Nation, a new twist on the popular clip show genre,” said Deadline. The series is set to launch on September 26 and “will feature viral videos shared by people from their video doorbells and smart home cameras.”
Needless to say: “The series will feature clips such as neighbors saving neighbors, marriage proposals, military reunions and silly animals.”
Taking on TikTok
“It’s a television take on a genre that has been increasingly going viral on social media,” said Deadline. A trend best exemplified by TikTok, “known in China as Douyin (抖音), a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese company ByteDance.”
The situation is fluid from a legal standpoint
TikTok is relatively new in this space but already exhibits target-market dominance. “Pew Research recently released a survey that shows TikTok is currently the top social media platform for teens,” says an article on pandasecurity.com.
Quick-and-forgettable dopamine bursts served up on TikTok are an exemplar for all social media. In July 2022, “Facebook redesigned its home feed to resemble TikTok” wrote pandasecurity.com. “The new tab called ‘Feeds’ is very similar to TikTok’s algorithm of chosen videos.” And YouTube Shorts (introduced in 2021) is “Google’s spot to shoot, share, and binge short videos (60 seconds or less) on YouTube.”
Data scrape
TikTok's privacy practices have put the firm on notice. “Privacy concerns have been brought up regarding the app,” says Wikipedia. “In its privacy policy, TikTok lists that it collects usage information, IP addresses, a user's mobile carrier, unique device identifiers, keystroke patterns, and location data, among other data.”
From cute puppy videos to governmental scrutiny
TikTok's explanation of its data policies (in part), as stated on their legal page: “We collect certain device and network connection information when you access any of our Services,” says the TikTok statement. These include, according to TikTok: “your device model, operating system, keystroke patterns or rhythms, IP address, and system language...characteristics and features about the video and audio recordings that are part of your User Content, for example, by identifying objects and scenery; the existence or location within an image of a face or other body parts; and the text of words spoken in your User Content.”
Inferring more data to scrape
This level of data-mining apparently isn't enough. Wielding a strategy reminiscent of the film Minority Report, the TikTok legal statement specifically mentions “Inferred Information,” to wit: “We infer your attributes (such as age range and gender) and interests based on the information we have about you.”
And the philosophy here? “We use inferences to, for example, keep our Platform safe, content moderation, and, where permitted, to serve you personalised ads based on your interests.”
Surveillance state?
Privacy advocates have criticized Ring for helping normalize a “surveillance state” mentality — by partnering with law enforcement organizations. “Ring has partnered with more than 900 police departments across the U.S. since 2018 after Amazon purchased the video doorbell company,” wrote CNET. “These partnerships have alarmed both lawmakers and privacy advocates, who worry that the tech giant is creating a surveillance network in residential neighborhoods.”
It's a bit of a stretch from cute puppy videos to governmental scrutiny, but in 2020, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy “sent a letter to Amazon seeking information about its subsidiary Ring Inc.’s partnerships with city governments and local police departments, along with the company’s policies governing the data it collects.”
The letter, written by Chairman Raja Krishnamoorthi, says: “The Subcommittee...is writing to request documents and information about Ring’s partnerships with city governments and local police departments, along with the company’s policies governing the data it collects.”
“The Subcommittee demands Amazon provide information about these partnerships dating back to January 1, 2013.”
Why CDOs should pay attention
Data professionals may think that corporate data policies governing kitten videos aren't important. But data privacy is an ongoing concern, and platforms like TikTok and entities like Amazon are on the front lines when it comes to proposed legislation.
The “Ring Nation” strategy can be seen as a riposte to TikTok, as the latter has become popular, forcing more-established social media platforms to create new TikTok-like services, none of which seem to enjoy equivalent resonance.
It's a small step from User Content and Inferred Information to biometrics and governmental scrutiny. For example, in June 2021, TikTok updated its privacy policy and “introduced a new section that says the social video app 'may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information' from its users’ content,” wrote Sarah Perez on TechCrunch. “This includes things like 'faceprints and voiceprints,' the policy explained.”
Perez notes that this “doesn’t specify whether it’s considering [U.S.] federal law, states laws, or both...It doesn’t define the terms 'faceprints' or 'voiceprints'...nor does it explain how it would go about seeking the 'required permissions' from users or if it would look to either state or federal laws to guide that process of gaining consent.”
Perez makes an important point, given the patchwork quilt of state/federal laws Stateside (and country/E.U.-wide laws in the E.U.). The situation is fluid from a legal standpoint, and chief digital officers, chief data officers as well as all CXOs will find it in their long-term interests to devise cogent data privacy policies for their tech strategies.
Stefan Hammond is a contributing editor to CDOTrends. Best practices, the IoT, payment gateways, robotics and the ongoing battle against cyberpirates pique his interest. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/Sonsedska