CHAPTER 4: TECHNOLOGY
in English cities,30 an “all-sources hub” was created to help police to tackle disorder,
which includes social media monitoring.31
4.30.
The use of location data provided by mobile phones is another example of the “new
dimensions of data”32 created by technological change. It comes as a surprise to many
smart phone owners to see how much detailed information about their movements is
routinely recorded and retained on default settings.33 The impact of this dimension
was brought to life by the German politician, Malte Spitz, in 2009, after he obtained his
phone data from Deutsche Telekom and permitted a newspaper to combine that
location data with information freely available about him online, in order to produce a
detailed map of his movements over a six-month period.34 This new source of data
has become more voluminous in a world full of app update notifications: location data
are created by every notification. Tweets posted from mobile phones can also reveal
location data, as do Public WiFi services. In February 2015 research was published
which shows how information about a user’s location can be obtained simply by
reading aggregate power usage on a phone. Modern mobile platforms allow
applications to read this information.35 Images taken on mobile phones, and some
cameras, also embed location data in the image file.
4.31.
These new dimensions of data are ever increasing. The iPhone 5S, introduced in
2013, contains Touch ID technology allowing the user’s fingerprint to act as a pass
code, as do its successors.36 Samsung Smart TVs have a voice recognition feature
which, if activated, sends voice data over the internet to a voice recognition service. A
UK bank is carrying out a trial of technology which uses customers’ heartbeats to verify
their identity for online banking.
4.32.
Tags using radio frequency identification allow the objects to which they are attached
or in which they are embedded to be located: they may be used by retailers to track
inventory and prevent shoplifting, but also to transmit location information after
purchase. Cars are increasingly becoming software platforms: “black box insurance”
allows premiums to be calculated on the basis of driving behaviour as monitored by
telematics, and may also allow emergency services to be notified in the event of a
crash and guided to the site by Global Positioning System [GPS] technology.37
4.33.
A source of data predicted to enter the mainstream by 2020 is the Internet of Things
[IOT] or machine to machine communications. These terms are used to describe the
idea of having all electronic devices at home and in the workplace connected to the
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, The rules of engagement: A review of the August 2011
Disorders (2011).
See C. Hobbs et al (eds), Open Source Intelligence in the Twenty-First Century: New Approaches and
Opportunities, (2014), p 24.
As set out in the Submission I received from Dr Paul Bernal, p. 3.
To see where you have been and how long you stayed, on an iPhone 5 or 6 click on Settings, Privacy,
Location Services, System Services, Frequent Locations.
As can be seen at http://www.zeit.de/datenschutz/malte-spitz-data-retention.
R. Whitwam, “Battery power alone used to track Android phones”, Extreme Tech Website, 23 February
2015.
One of three future trends in the application of biometrics identified by witnesses to the House of
Commons Science and Technology Committee Inquiry into biometric data was the proliferation of mobile
biometrics: Current and Future Uses of Biometric data and technologies, 6th Report of 2014-2015, p. 9,
published 7 March 2015.
“Little black box under the bonnet saved my life”, Mail Online, 10 March 2015.
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