Murder prediction tools and Whatsapp arrests, is Black Mirror already here?
A government-led murder prediction programme, WhatsApp chat arrests, and a police siege on a Quaker house, it’s easy to feel like we’re already living in Black Mirror, writes Rebecca Vincent in today’s Notebook
Are we living in an episode of Black Mirror?
Anyone would be forgiven for thinking some of the headlines in British newspapers in recent weeks were better suited to science fiction than real life, each story more outrageous than the last.
In a particularly shocking development, last week an investigation by Statewatch exposed a murder prediction tool secretly being developed by the government. Under the framework of its so-called “Homicide Prevention Project”, the Ministry of Justice is reported to be using police and government data to develop profiles with the aim of “predicting” who is “at risk” of committing murder. Dystopian doesn’t even begin to cover it – as we have said at Big Brother Watch, the government must not be allowed to use pervasive technology to target innocent people. This dangerous programme should be immediately scrapped and should never see the light of day.
Also worrying are multiple reports over the past month of extremely heavy-handed police interference with free speech. My jaw actually dropped reading the story of Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine, Hertfordshire parents who were detained by six uniformed police officers at their home in front of their young child, searched, fingerprinted and held in a police cell for eight hours. Their supposed crime (for which they ultimately were not charged)? Complaining in a parents’ Whatsapp group and writing emails to the school questioning the recruitment process for a head teacher. Equally disturbing were reports of a police raid by as many as 30 officers on a Quaker meeting house, where six women were arrested for attending a meeting to plan a series of protests over the government’s position on climate change and the war in Gaza.
Both incidents seem to be examples of police overreach and speak volumes about the current state of freedom of expression in Britain, where thoughtcrime looks increasingly less of a leap.
#StopAsdaSpying starts trending
Perhaps inspired by UK police escalating their own use of live facial recognition technology – most recently in Cardiff and Croydon – Asda has become the latest retailer to join the ranks of Southern Co-op, Home Bargains and others in spying on their customers. The supermarket heavyweight is currently trialling pervasive live facial recognition technology from a software company called Faice Tech, integrated in CCTV cameras in five of its stores across Greater Manchester, with the stated aim of reducing shoplifting and assaults on their staff.
No one has yet to explain how scanning the faces of thousands of customers in real time will accomplish that, when human intervention is still needed to thwart actual criminals. The two-month trial has already struck a nerve with the public, with #StopAsdaSpying trending on social media. Rolling back privacy is clearly not a good look!
A silver lining for iCloud
Thankfully, it’s not all been doom and gloom. In a victory for privacy rights and open justice, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal rejected the Home Office’s bid to keep the Apple encryption case completely shrouded in secrecy. Apple is appealing the Home Office’s order attempting to force the creation of an encryption backdoor, which would represent an unprecedented attack on the privacy of millions of UK Apple users. Big Brother Watch and others had urged the Tribunal to open proceedings to the public, and these arguments made a difference. The Tribunal did not accept the Home Office’s argument that revealing the bare details of the case would be damaging to the public interest or prejudicial to national security, meaning the case should be at least partially opened – a very welcome step in the right direction.
Quote of the week:
“Looking around the world, there are all sorts of horrible things going on. It’s a worrisome time. We’ve got tech that is a wave of misinformation. Things could get worse before they could get better. Technology is an amazing tool, and we’re amazing things as people. So with any luck, we’ll dig ourselves out of this shit.”
Black Mirror creater Charlie Brooker to The Hollywood Reporter
What I’m watching
For this month’s recommendation, how could I point you towards anything other than the new series of Black Mirror? As with each prior instalment, season seven is best slowly consumed rather than binged, one episode at a time savoured in its entirety, without interruptions from the technology that itself is both the linchpin and the bête noire of the series. Charlie Brooker is a master of nuance, always taking things just slightly too far, somehow still surprising us, and leaving us in a state of marvel and unease, in equal measure. No spoilers, as like many parents juggling children off school for the Easter holidays, I’m only partly through myself – but I can’t wait to see where this season ends up.
Rebecca Vincent is interim director at Big Brother Watch