FC: Query on designing privacy-friendly Omnilock surveillance system

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 09:59:30 -0800
To: declan () well com
From: Douglas Thomas <douglast () usc edu>
Subject: Query, potential politech post
In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20030205112657.01994ec0 () mail well com>
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I am not sure if this is politech-worthy, but I shall ask regardless.

My program has just installed an particularly odious device called an 
Omnilock (http://www.omnilock.com be sure to check the creepy eye logo on 
the home page) on all of our classroom doors within our building.  They are 
now "keyed" to individual faculty IDs and the locks, conveniently enough, 
provide an "audit trail" of the last 5,000 users.

These audit trails are fed into a Windows DB, called the OmniLock 
Faciltiies Manager.

Now, here is my quandary.  I have been charged with writing a privacy 
policy about how the information collected from the Omnilock audit trails 
may be collected, stored, accessed and used.

The faculty is in agreement that such information should not be collected, 
stored, accessed or used in any way shape or form.

So, how does one write such a policy that doesn't make the poor tech 
support people's (who are trapped in the middle of this) lives hell, yet at 
the same time makes it impossible to use these locks for surveillance 
(which I assume was the rationale for the shift since keys have all the 
required qualities to simply limit access).  More to the point, how do I 
write this such that it has language which is both legally binding and 
would be actionable if violated?

Is there a simple way to set up an anonymous system to delegate 
authorization codes which would allow the lock to know the person is 
"authorized," but not necessarily who the person is?  Does anyone have 
experience with the way these locks work?

I thought I'd ask, as this is an opportunity to actually intervene in the 
deployment of a surveillance system and I'd love to get feedback from as 
many people as possible.

Best regards,
Doug




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