RCMP may violate privacy rights with use of AI software
A Privacy Impact Assessment does not make clear whether the RCMP is using invasive premium Babel X features
by jackson rennebohm
In an article published in issue three of the Carillon, the IDF’s use of AI as a tool for assassination was covered. In brief, ‘Lavender’, alongside Israeli-made artificial intelligence systems have shifted the way targets are selected for assassination.
These systems, according to +972 Magazine are aided by mass surveillance, which is seemingly all compiled in the IDF’s database, called ‘Wolf Pack.’ Lavender is constantly fed this information.
Last issue the Carillon reported that Lavender “is programmed to detect potential ‘enemy militants’ in the Wolf Pack database. Lavender pulls names from the database and assigns a rating for the person (from 1 to 100) based on level of confidence that the person is a militant.”
IDF officers then choose a rating threshold. Anyone in the database with a higher rating “is, with almost no further IDF investigation, confirmed as an enemy militant and put on an assassination list.” Only “20 seconds” are allocated to investigating each alleged enemy militant. The IDF has a broad and ever-changing definition of enemy militants, evident with at least 35,000 Palestinian children now dead or missing, as confirmed by the UN.
Killing of civilians continues in Gaza. The UN has confirmed 254 aid workers have been killed. The Middle East Eye reports that at least 1,151 Palestinians “working in Gaza’s health sector” have been killed by Israeli forces. 986 have been named by the Palestinian health ministry. The names of others are still being confirmed.
According to Al Jazeera, “Human Rights Watch says aid workers’ convoys and facilities have been targeted at least eight times since last October.” On September 6, Aysenur Eygi, a 26-year-old dual Turkish and American citizen, was unarmed at a protest in the West Bank when an IDF soldier fired a bullet into her head.
It’s possible, considering the widespread use of AI systems by the IDF reported by +972 Magazine, that ‘Lavender’ isselecting some of these targets.
American, English, and Canadian police and military forces are also in possession of advanced surveillance and AI tech. Euroforce reported that American police have been using AI to write their incident reports, despite concerns of racial bias. On September 11, BBC reported that Hampshire police have begun to pilot an AI facial recognition program.
In Canada, the RCMP have been using an AI tool called ‘Babel X.’ Babel X is developed by the American company under the name “Babel Street.” Similar to Lavender, Babel X sifts through massive amounts of information to “identify themes, entities, and categories, as well as detect relationships” which are searched for by the user.
Unlike Lavender, Babel X only uses publicly available data from the internet, dark web, and public records. Without premium features, Babel X could simply be described as an advanced search engine. The RCMP have not made it clear if they are using any of Babel X’s premium features, which each make the software more invasive.
Babel Street claims that Locate X, one of the premium features of Babel X, “provides access to a Data Feed enabling access to historical digital device location data.” Furthermore, Locate X Premium “offers [users] access to additional metadata” not included in Locate X; a vague description.
The IDF used device-tracking tactics to carry out airstrikes on Lavender’s assassination targets in their homes.
Another Babel X premium feature is called Babel Synthesis. Babel Synthesis utilizes artificial intelligence to automate what Babel Street calls “social network and relationship mapping,” and can “tag influencer accounts based on their occupation, activities, demographics, and group affiliations to reveal insights into network dynamics and motivations.”
All of this data is visualized for the user by the Babel Synthesis AI, allowing users ease of access. While the data gathered by Babel Synthesis is presumably less thorough than a system such as the IDF’s ‘Wolf Pack,’ the inclusion of relationship maps of the people in the system, if used in tandem with information from a police database, becomes increasingly invasive.
Radio Canada International reported that at least 13 federal departments of the government, including the RCMP, were using spyware to gather information. Most Canadian citizens do not currently know the true extent of data that Babel X has access to.
According to Babel Street, another Babel X premium feature, called OASIS (Ontologically Assisted Search and Intelligence System) streamlines the search process of Babel X “by consolidating multiple identifiers for a single entity and then grouping multiple entities.”
These “entities” are people and their “identifiers” are whatever traits they exhibit significant to the OASIS user. The OASIS feature of Babel X is similar to the IDF’s Lavender, allowing for large lists of “entities” to be created, based on whatever “identifiers” the OASIS user wishes to search for.
It remains unclear whether or not the RCMP are currently using , or have used any of these premium features. In the Privacy Impact Assessment for the RCMP’s use of Babel X, none of the premium features are mentioned.
In February, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Philippe Dufresne, released a report recommending that the RCMP be more transparent about the collection of Canadians’ personal information.
According to CBC news, “the RCMP ‘was unwilling to commit’ to implementing the commissioner’s recommendations.” The recommendations in question included requests for RCMP to cease collection for personal information through Babel X. Dufresne’s report explained that the matter is unresolved, and “continuing contraventions and violations” of privacy rights by the RCMP may be ongoing.
Sources:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-use-private-sector-surveillance-1.7116837
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/aysenur-ezgi-eygi-funeral-turkey
https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/WHO-PHSA-oPt-020524-FINAL.pdf
https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/babel-x-platform
https://www.babelstreet.com/resources/data-sheet/babel-street-synthesis
