Ban the Scan: Biometric Surveillance in NYC

Community Gathered Data, Research, Data Visualization, Policy Advocacy

I have long been passionate about the way surveillance is woven into the fabric of the built environment and think it is important to seek transparency and accountability, especially in the era of Big Tech. So when the advocacy group S.T.O.P (Surveillance Technology Oversight Project) asked me to help with a local mapping project about biometric surveillance, I was immediately interested.

When The Gothamist first reported about Wegman’s (a regional chain) storing biometric data on shoppers, many New Yorkers were horrified, and support for ‘Ban the Scan’ legislation skyrocketed.

The rub with this research project is that S.T.O.P (nor anyone!) has the resources to physically make sure public spaces are property is properly posting signage to inform customers of surveillance practices. So I built a community-collected, researcher-verified, real-time public facing map of biometric surveillance.

I created a public-facing google form for community members to report biometric surveillance, which is uploaded to a sheet for S.T.O.P staff. Staff members then verify the report, and if verified, push it out to the live map powered by Datawrapper.

See the full project here.