Privacy Commissioner - Te Mana Matapono Matatapu

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Sensors in everyday life

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Powering Personal Choice for Global Impact
UCLA - Personal Environmental Impact Report
If your mobile phone carries a geolocation sensor it can help scientists work out your impact upon the environment. There is a video about how the system works and a privacy policy that explains some of the risks you face if you participate.

'Smart Grid' Raises Security Concerns
Washington Post 28th July 2009
The roll out of smart electricity meters to peoples' homes in the US is causing concern because they can be vulnerable to cyber attack. The roll out is part of a plan to connect the whole of the power grid to the internet.

Innovation: Is the future of healthcare online?
New Scientist 24th July 2009
Many health care devices can now connect to the internet so you - and others - can monitor your health online. Trials have begun in the UK, where patients are choosing whether they want to share their information this way.

Intelligent transport raises privacy concerns
Euractive 24th July 2009
The European Data Protection Supervisor is concerned that European plans for developing intelligent transport systems take little account of privacy. Intelligent transport systems use technologies such as geo-positioning and RFID sensors to manage and improve road, rail, air and sea transport systems can collect personal information about individual journeys.

How technology will ease our traffic woes
New Scientist 22nd July 2009
In-car sensor technology, sensors mounted on lampposts, and GPS in cell phones can all share data about your vehicle speed, acceleration and your location. But with smart in-car devices that can learn from your driving style and from your past behaviour, and use this information to plan your route, the article asks how much intrusion will drivers tolerate?

From RFID to the Internet of Things
A new European Union (EU) website about radio frequency identification (RFID).
The website explains how business and governments are using RFID to tag objects, identify and locate them. The website is part of the EU's work stream about protecting individual privacy and the safe use of RFID technology.

Cambridge University builds lamppost-mounted traffic-counting sensors
ElectronicsWeekly.com 22nd July 2009
Low definition infrared CCTV cameras can count passing traffic but cannot collect more detailed information. Cambridge University states that the definition of the camera is too low to read number plates and that this will help protect the privacy of drivers.

Innovation: When advertising meets surveillance
New Scientist 7th July 2009
Advertisers can use smart sensors to monitor your behaviour, for example a billboard installed with a camera that catches the direction of your gaze and then targets you with a personal message. The article discusses privacy advocates' concerns about the right to give consent to monitoring by any of these new technologies.

Warning new electricity meters may not be 'smart 'enough
New Zealand Herald 25th June 2009
Smart meters provide two-way communication between households and electricity retailers, giving detailed information to retailers about patterns of fuel use. Benefits to consumers only occur if meters have the right functionality.

Action Plan on an "internet of things"
Enterprise Europe Yorkshire 18th June 2009
The IoT (Internet of Things) uses sensors such as RFID to track and collect data about the many billions of objects that surround people. The tracking of things such as yoghurt pots, clothing and mobile phones, can also track people, and the European Commission Action Plan aims to ensure that this will not be at the expense of privacy.

Technology not to be sneezed at
New Zealand Herald 18th June 2009
The temperature of your hand when holding your mobile phone can show if you have the flu. Phones fitted with a heat sensor and GPS can send temperature and location data to a central place, which can track the health of whole populations of people who have similar devices.

GPS shoes for Alzheimer's patients
6th June 2009
People with Alzheimer's disease, and others, may lose their way when wandering. Relatives and carers can track the location of a person to an accuracy of 30 feet if the person wears shoes fitted with this miniaturised electronic tracking device.

EC sets out privacy requirements for smart RFID tags
Computerworld 13th May 2009
Computerworld reports that an industry body, GS1 EPCglobal, welcomes the European Union's privacy code of conduct for the use of RFID tags. The code, a recommendation to EU governments, sets out four safeguards to improve data protection and protect individuals from tracking.

New smart meter plan is unveiled
BBC News 12th May 2009
The UK government plans to equip every home in the UK with a smart energy meter. A reader comments that a plan to make installation of smart meters compulsory failed in Holland because of privacy worries - for example meters can tell whether you house is occupied from the pattern of your energy use.

Small chips with big potential: New EU recommendations make sure 21st century bar codes respect privacy
Europa Press Release 12 May 2009
Billions of everyday objects - fridges, clothes, bank cards, transit cards, and clothing - now contain smart chips or wireless tags that collect personal information. The European Union recommendation says that business and other agencies that use chips and tags in this way should allow individuals to opt-in to this use.

'Cone of silence' keeps conversations secret
New Scientist 9th May 2009
A network of smart ‘listening' sensors coupled to noise generating loud speakers detects where people are in a room. Noise from the loud speakers makes it difficult for people to overhear a person's conversation, although privacy problems can arise if the sensors themselves start listening in.

Internet privacy: Mind your own business
The Journal 28th April 2009
With 2.7 billion mobile phones worldwide, mobile phone use has created ‘the world's largest sensor network'.

Power grid is found susceptible to cyberattack
Computerworld, NZ, 23rd March 2009
Research supports growing concern about the vulnerability to attack of smart meters used in domestic electricity supply. Researchers showed how hackers could disconnect a smart electricity meter from supply.

Google's PowerMeter lets you know if the lights are on
Computer World New Zealand, 10th March 2009
Google PowerMeter is a web-based software application into which users can feed data about home energy use. To use this service, consumers will need to have installed a 'smart' energy meter and send data from this to Google over the internet. 

RFID's security problem
MIT Technology Review, January/February 2009
US travel documents now contain smart RFID tags. The Review looks at the security hazards that belong to differing ways of using this technology.