The Ethics of Movement Tracking

Software	None
Covers	Moral philosophy, surveillance technology, data analysis technology
Skills Required	Interest in ethics, interest in role of computers in society
Challenge	Conceptual ???? Technical ?? Programming

Brief Description

The ability of governments, the police and private companies to track people's movements has improved enormously over the last few years, and we can expect it to improve further. But when should governments or other organizations track where we go and who we meet? Conversely, when do we as citizens have a legitimate right to privacy in our whereabouts and social interactions, and what is required to override it?

The aim of this project is to explore the ethics of movement tracking, and how considerations of what is right and appropriate interact with considerations of what is technologically and legally feasible.

Police forces have always routinely tracked the movements of selected individuals after the event, to solve crimes, and we accept that this is sufficient justification. We are now under routine surveillance in many public places, with the aim of preventing crime and disorder. But what about tracking of people who are unsuspected of committing crimes? Or are suspected of committing what people in liberal democracies would not consider crimes, but totalitarian governments want to punish. (In Communist-era Czechoslovakia, unauthorized use of a photocopier carried the same penalty as rape.) Promises of good behaviour don't count for much: saying that surveillance powers will only be used for counter-terrorism won't stop the police from using them for parking offences. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has raised questions about how much the authorities should track movements for purposes other than crime prevention, such as identifying people who need to be tested for or treated for diseases.

Do the moral considerations that apply to governmental bodies such as the Police apply equally to individuals or to commercial organisations, and vice versa? Is the purpose of the surveillance the only morally-relevant consideration, or not? Does it matter where the surveillance happens, for example within the territory ruled by a government, or on the land owned by a company?

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