![]() ![]() In the spirit of #ISEC, this is an interdisciplinary work, with contributions from surveilled graduate students in a myriad of departments. The excuse held little water among the security-aware graduate students at the university.įor now, the sensors have found a new home, as a public art piece on the floor of the #ISEC lobby. Administrators attempted to make a case that the study did not need ethics approval, as the sensors tracked “heat” rather than humans. Revelations that the university had not sought ethics approval for the study caused outrage, as did the sudden surprise arrival of the sensors themselves. Following explanations and meetings held with the student body did little to assuage concerns around the new technology. The matter was quickly taken up with university administration, which indicated the sensors were to be used for a study on desk utilization in the facility. They were also rather perturbed to learn they were suddenly being surveilled. As you might expect, graduate students working in this field are keenly attuned to spotting aberrant hardware that mysteriously shows up overnight. ![]() This happened in Northeastern University’s Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Complex (ISEC), home to the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute. Notably, the sensors were installed overnight without notifying affected students, and without their consent. The university installed a series of heat sensors under desks aimed roughly at crotch height, intended to detect when a human (or other suitably warm object) was sitting at a desk. The devices in question were part of an “occupancy monitoring system” developed by Spaceti, a company which specializes in maximizing efficiency for commercial buildings. ![]() One such device intended to track students quickly drew the ire of scholars at Northeastern University, and the cohort fought back. Outside of mere cameras, companies are rushing to develop all manner of new devices to surveil individuals, too. Recent years have seen the technology spread to the suburbs with porch cameras spreading the eye of big tech and law enforcement ever further. Public spaces are dotted with CCTV cameras inside and out. Surveillance has become a ubiquitous part of modern life. ![]()
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