I must have missed this HuffPost article from last month. But here's my take on it:
The free, high-speed Wi-Fi kiosks in New York City have cameras that record whatever / whoever passes by. The company, CityBridge, states that they keep the footage for up to 7 days. Additionally,
" LinkNYC still collects what it describes as “Technical Information,” including information such as IP addresses, anonymized MAC addresses, device type, device identifiers, and more, for up to 60 days. "
As you can imagine, the New York Civil Liberties Union has serious concerns about this data collection. And so do I. CityBridge states they,
"...will not give any data collected by environmental sensors or cameras to anyone other than the City or governmental law enforcement,” with a few exceptions. One of those exceptions is with “advanced, written permission from the City.”
But wait! Where do I and other citizens get to add our opt-in or opt out?
Free high speed wi-fi internet access is a good thing but we need well examined, stringent privacy safeguards in place. New York City should revisit the ground rules for how data is collected, who was access to it and how it is being monitized. We need to have all the stakeholders at the table giving their input and buy-in on any final set of rules.
Nothing in life is free and this public / private partnership can and should be a model for funding large scale projects. But only if it's done in a fully transparent, equitable way.
And to be clear - I'm not saying that anything nefarious is being done with this data. But this shouldn't be depend on the ethical behavior of a company, no matter how well intentioned.
Privacy Battle Brewing: Are LinkNYC Kiosks Surveillance Devices?