Doctoral Dissertation Research: Security Versus Privacy in the Monitoring of People in Urban Areas

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。生物识别技术是一种将官方身份与生理或行为特征固定起来的技术，在过去20年里在全球范围内激增。在新冠肺炎大流行期间，世界各国政府都依赖这样的系统来限制和遏制传染病的传播。从某些方面来看，生物特征跟踪和监测的扩大加剧了长期处于国家严密监视之下的社区的社会不平等和不安全。然而，生产和销售此类技术的工程师和企业家认为，生物识别监控对全球人口的健康和安全至关重要。这项博士论文研究考察了数字权利活动家、工程师、企业家和政策制定者如何理解、体验和应对生物识别监控。随着生物特征监测技术的使用在新冠肺炎大流行期间和之后迅速扩大，该项目有可能帮助科学家了解生物特征监测在不同社区中的社会文化影响。此外，研究人员计划与立法者和非政府组织共享数据，以帮助为围绕此类技术的道德使用展开的政策和监管辩论提供信息。这项研究包括在那些生产、销售和挑战使用生物识别技术作为疾病跟踪和监测工具的人中进行人种学研究。定性方法包括在高科技行业环境中的参与者观察，对工程师和企业家的采访，以及与城市规划者和监管机构一起就此类监控系统在不同环境中的使用和有效性进行辩论的研究。通过与数字权利组织者和倡导者的半结构化访谈和参与者观察，调查还询问行为者为什么以及如何努力更好地监管和监督这类技术。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Biometric technologies, technologies that fix official identities to physiological or behavioral traits, have proliferated globally over the last two decades. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have relied on such systems to limit and curtail the spread of infectious disease. By some measures, the expansion of biometric tracking and monitoring has intensified social inequality and insecurity for communities long subjected to intensive state surveillance. However, engineers and entrepreneurs producing and marketing such technologies frame biometric surveillance as vital to the health and security of populations globally. This doctoral dissertation research examines how digital rights activists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers understand, experience, and respond to biometric surveillance. As the use of biometric surveillance technologies rapidly expands during and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this project has the potential to help scientists apprehend the socio-cultural implications of biometric surveillance among distinct communities. In addition, the researcher plans to share data with lawmakers and non-governmental organizations to help inform policy and regulatory debates surrounding the ethical use of such technologies. This research includes ethnographic research among those producing, marketing, and challenging the use of biometric technologies as tools of disease tracking and monitoring. Qualitative methods include participant observation in high-tech industry settings, interviews with engineers and entrepreneurs, and research alongside city planners and regulators debating the use and efficacy of such surveillance systems in diverse contexts. Through semi-structured interviews and participant observation with digital rights organizers and advocates, the investigation also asks why and how actors work towards better regulation and oversight of such technologies. Research findings contribute to social scientific theories surrounding the socio-cultural impacts of science and technology more generally, and biometric surveillance in particular.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.