NYPD sued for using Microsoft-powered spy network to track New Yorkers
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) is suing the New York Police Department (NYPD) for its invasive surveillance practices.
According to the New York-based non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider, citizens in New York City are constantly being monitored and tracked, both on the streets and online. This is made possible by the city’s so-called Domain Awareness System, or DAS.
DAS is the result of a partnership with Microsoft and has been around in New York City since 2012.
“It is a voyeuristic policing platform that unifies into one centralized network more than a dozen technologies, public and private, including video camera systems, tracking technologies, biometric tools, data and financial aggregation analytics, and digital communications monitors,” S.T.O.P. explains in court documents.
The non-profit claims that DAS collects the identity, location, banking details, vehicle information, and social media activity of all inhabitants of New York City.
“It combines these entries with civil and criminal records and converts them into digital profiles that chart people’s thoughts, plans, beliefs, and affiliations, reconstructing, in effect, the private lives of millions. It is virtually impossible to avoid,” the advocacy group continues.
In addition, the information collected by the system is stored indefinitely, even from those who have never been suspected of any crime. All New Yorkers have been drawn into a “web of surveillance” and “city-wide surveillance that undermines their rights.”
Newly obtained information detailing how DAS works shows that the system ties together citywide camera networks, license plate readers, drone and helicopter feeds, ShotSpotter gunshot alerts, 911 and 311 call records, and police records, law enforcement databases, and data streams into one surveillance network.
“It is an unprecedented violation of American life and now stands as one of the largest surveillance networks operated anywhere in the world,” S.T.O.P. says.
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Because of this massive intrusion on the people’s fundamental rights, the civil rights advocacy group is seeking to protect the New Yorkers’ privacy and liberty. The organization has asked the US District Court of the Southern District of New York to declare the city’s surveillance practices unconstitutional.
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