A new research network has been established to investigate the legal, ethical, social and technical issues which arise from the use of wearable, non-removable tagging and tracking devices.
According to the network’s website, tracking devices are increasingly being used to monitor a range of individuals including “offenders, mental health patients, dementia patients, young people in care, immigrants and suspected terrorists”.
The interdisciplinary network is being hosted at the University of Leeds and aims to foster “new empirical, conceptual, theoretical and practical insights into the use of tracking devices”.
The network is being coordinated by Professor Anthea Hucklesby and Dr Kevin MacNish. It will bring together academics, designers, policy-makers and practitioners to explore critical issues such as:
- privacy;
- ethics;
- data protection;
- efficiency and effectiveness;
- the efficacy and suitability of the equipment design;
- the involvement of the private sector as providers and operators;
- the potential for discriminatory use.
Readers of the Information Law and Policy Centre blog might be particularly interested in a seminar event scheduled for April 2017 which will consider the “legal and ethical issues arising from actual and potential uses of tracking devices across a range of contexts”.
For further information, check out the network’s website or email the team to join the network.