We’re big fans of the work of Media Democracy Days, having participated in their panels and blogged about their events in the past. This November, they’re launching their first-ever three-day event, and we’ll definitely be checking it out. In the meantime, they are co-presenting a film screening and panel discussion on surveillance, a subject of special importance in this political and social moment in Vancouver.

Article 12: Waking Up in a Surveillance Society presents a sharp look at the current state of privacy and the debate around the rights and desires of individuals and governments with the increasing accessibility and use of surveillance. Using the twelfth article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to chart the current state of privacy around the world, the film argues that without the right to privacy no other human right can truly be exercised. The film features interviews with Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, and Vancouver favourite Brian Eno. The film and accompanying panel discussion – featuring Micheal Vonn of the BC Civil Liberties Association and Kate Milberry of Geeks and Global Justice, among others – takes place Thursday, September 15 at W2 Media Café.

With the recent publishing of the Vancouver riot review, concerns over the use of facial recognition software, and the potential for scaling up the use of public video surveillance in the future, now (right before the municipal election) is an apt time to be discussing the impacts and implications of surveillance in our city’s public spaces.

For more details on the film screening and panel discussion, visit the event’s Facebook page.

According to the Act, ICBC can disclose personal information (including your photograph) to “a public body or a law enforcement agency in Canada to assist in a specific investigation with a view to a law enforcement proceeding, or from which a law enforcement proceeding is likely to result.” This clause may well come into play for people present at Vancouver’s most recent riots. According to the Vancouver Observer, ICBC has offered access to both its image bank of driver’s license photographs and its facial recognition technology for the RCMP to use to identify people involved in the riots and looting that followed last month’s Stanley Cup riot.

BC’s Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham says ICBC must comply with the FIPPA when it uses the technology. She stated, “There is a fine balance to be struck in weighing a citizen’s privacy interests and the use of personal information for law enforcement… This balancing of interests must be undertaken within the confines of existing law.”

ICBC spokesman Adam Grossman says the RCMP has not yet taken up ICBC’s offer of technology and photographs, but if the exchange does come to pass, ICBC will comply with the recommendations of the Privacy Commissioner.

Commissioner Denham points out the importance of this, stating, “This is a very, very tricky area of law, especially when government bodies have new technologies and new caches and extensive databases of personal information.”

When we talk about surveillance and privacy, we often end up also talking about ‘mission creep’, where a technology or practice is introduced in such a way and for such a purpose that seems reasonable, only for its mission to gradually extend its scope to include activities that we may not be comfortable with. While most of us think it’s pretty reasonable for ICBC to store our driver’s license photos, having those images used to document our movements in public space is an escalation that we don’t tend to consider when we’re grinning for the camera to receive our driver’s license.