Keeping a close watch

Students and staff inside the computer science building are under closer surveillance than those in other buildings on campus. Barcode-like radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and antennas have been installed on volunteers and even the most mundane details of a tagged person can now be scrutinized.

For example, researchers working with the RFID tags can locate one of their colleagues in the building by accessing a computer using the RFID technology to discern his or her exact location.

“Our goal is to ask what benefits can we get out of this technology and how can we protect people’s privacy at the same time,” project leader Magda Balazinska said. “We want to get a handle on the issues that would crop up if these systems become a reality.”

Balazinska’s plan is to utilize 200 radio antennas set up in the computer science building to monitor a research pool of approximately 50 student and staff volunteers who regularly use the building. The volunteers will wear a RFID device, a flat and flexible card about the size of a small postcard.

RFID tags are already used nationwide by shipping companies to monitor the status of goods on the road as well as in new U.S. passports. UW researchers will also use RFID tags on items such as purses and computers so participants can keep track of their belongings.

Researchers will not always be able to discern the exact location of the volunteers. Bathroom visits and lunch breaks will not be recorded and volunteers can limit the amount of data that is recorded in order to protect their privacy.

“It’s an interesting technology and it raises a lot of important issues with respect to privacy,” said Evan Welbourne, the lead graduate student working on the project.

Welbourne stated three major concerns with the technology. He pointed out that a hacker or “malicious third parties” might gain access to the data and thereby discover the exact locations of people and property.

He also warned that “curious peers” might snoop around in other people’s data. The major concern, he said in a reference to George Orwell’s book 1984, is “institutional surveillance, or the ‘Big Brother’ problem.”

Students were concerned about the transparency of the data and the consent of the participants in the study.

“If the students don’t voluntarily say ‘Hey you, tag me,’ I think it’s a big breach of privacy even if it is an experiment,” said senior Charlene Reyes, an electrical engineering student who spends time in the computer science building.

Results from the experiment will give Balazinska and Welbourne a better understanding of how to reconcile the utility of RFID devices with the inherent privacy issues related to use of the RFID devices.

“We want to protect people’s privacy and we believe we kind of have to experiment with it to find out what the issues are rather than letting people deploy it left and right,” Balazinska said.

In that respect, Balazinska and her associates plan to conduct many experiments concerned with the applications of RFID devices and the processing of the massive amounts of data RFID tags collect. When the experiment is finally over, they hope to have results that will allow them to find solutions to privacy concerns in applications in other settings.

Balazinska sees the technology leaving the academic world and entering into a variety of settings such as hospitals, libraries and elder care centers.

First, however, the researchers want to be sure they are juxtaposing the utility of RFID tracking devices with an individual’s right to privacy in a manner that will be useful to others interested in RFID technology.

“We can inform policy makers of types of legislation we can have to protect people’s privacy,” Welbourne said.

[Reach reporter Andrew Doughman at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]