Surveillance Protest Art – It’s a Two-Way Mirror

Imagine you’ve been detained as a suspected terrorist.  Only you’re a U.S. citizen, a university professor, and have a valid passport.

The U.S. terrorist watch list – the party that’s too easy to get invited to, and too hard to leave even when you don’t belong.  But that’s where Hasan Elahi wound up when he was mistaken for somebody else and thought to be stockpiling explosives.

Hasan Baba interviewed Elahi for San Francisco’s KALW radio station and explains that:

He was eventually cleared, but the experience inspired him to launch a project called “Hiding in Plain Sight” in which he photographs every single detail of his daily life – no matter how mundane – and uploads it on his website for the world – and the FBI – to see. It’s a form of “surveillance protest art.”

Elahi’s website, http://www.trackingtransience.net/, is indeed part self-surveillance / CYA and part art project with installations having been displayed around the world and, most recently in San Francisco.  He’s been doing this, uploading his GPS locations and every detail of his life, since 2003.

An article from Wired Magazine back in 2007 explains that since Elahi has started this project and started notifying the FBI before every plane trip he hasn’t been detained:

So it dawned on him: If being candid about his flights could clear his name, why not be open about everything? “I’ve discovered that the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away,” he says, grinning as he sips his venti Black Eye. Elahi relishes upending the received wisdom about surveillance. The government monitors your movements, but it gets things wrong. You can monitor yourself much more accurately. Plus, no ambitious agent is going to score a big intelligence triumph by snooping into your movements when there’s a Web page broadcasting the Big Mac you ate four minutes ago in Boise, Idaho. “It’s economics,” he says. “I flood the market.”

Surveillance – A Security Vulnerability Itself

While Elahi’s work raises questions about privacy and who is watching us a new book by Susan Landau, “Surveillance or Security?”, examines “the line between electronic surveillance as a means of protecting security versus surveillance transforming into a security vulnerability itself.”

In the book excerpt linked above, Landau explains that the modern forms of surveillance used by government and law enforcement agencies has caused a shift in what’s considered the most valuable pieces of personal property — Data and bits.

She details how security violations are greater when excessive collection of data occurs “through a lack of clarity on what data are being requested.”

How wide of a net should the law cast and how deep should it go?  As Landau notes, “The state is very powerful; its right to enter people ‘s homes and businesses would constitute trespass were it done by anyone else.”

More harm than good can come of too many innocents being watched to intently because the public’s support of surveillance efforts can wane if intrusion is too severe.

E-Surveillance Laws Need Updating

Meanwhile, Grant Gross at Computerworld is reporting that Democrats want an update to e-surveillance law.

Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are calling for changes to be made to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) calling it “outdated” because currently:

Under ECPA, law enforcement agencies don’t need court-ordered warrants to gain access to suspects’ Web-based e-mail messages, information stored in cloud-computing envin.mironments and mobile-phone location information, even though police would need warrants to gain access to e-mail or documents stored on a suspect’s computer.

In addition, recent court rulings have given law enforcement agencies conflicting guidance about when they need warrants, with proof of reasonable cause to believe a crime has been committed, and when they can use subpoenas and other legal tactics with lower burdens of proof, senators said.

Hasan Elahi’s efforts to “flood the market” with too much information about himself is extreme but in this modern surveillance era that’s still teething how crazy is it?  Because the methods and legality of electronic surveillance are still evolving, lack clarity, and those who employ it are proffered “conflicting guidance” for warrants and cause.

It’s a Two-Way Mirror

Elahi’s TrackingTransience.net project is a two-way mirror:  He’s able to watch who’s watching him by tracking hits on his website.   We’re surrounded by surveillance cameras in public and with our electronic forms of communication easily trackable, it is worth our while to watch who’s watching us too.

Sometimes it takes an extreme example to not only open a discussion about rights and existing laws but with these changing surveillance methods it’s time to ask how much privacy can people reasonably expect to live without?

For more insight check out Hasan Elahi on the Colbert Report as he discusses “evidence of his life and his actions, establishing a voluntary and perpetual digital alibi against future accusations.”