Summary
The purpose of this paper is to assist law enforcement, lawmakers, and the broader public in understanding and protecting our fundamental right to privacy with respect to surveillance by the state of our activities in public spaces through the use of ever-growing new technologies. In an effort to encourage a proactive approach to the use and supervision of the next generation of surveillance technologies, this paper examines the following: the vital importance of privacy to freedom and liberty (Part I); how we came to secure privacy in government’s information-handling practices, as well as in our private communications and activities (Part II); a range of the current challenges to securing privacy in the online and digital world (Part III).
What emerges from this study is a set of 10 principles that we apply to law enforcement’s use of
four emerging surveillance technologies: video surveillance cameras and closed circuit television
(CCTV), automatic licence plate recognition systems, geolocational tracking, and drone-based
surveillance (Part IV).