The UK Home Office and Ministry of Justice have reportedly found a new use for smartwatches: monitoring certain people by making them submit pictures of their faces up to five times a day.
The Guardian reports(Opens in a new window) that “migrants who have been convicted of a criminal offence” will be expected to submit to this smartwatch-based monitoring starting later this year.
The devices used as part of this monitoring program will be supplied by a company called Buddi Limited that says on its website(Opens in a new window) that its “focus is on providing peace of mind by enabling people to live independently in their own homes for longer” thanks to its smartwatch-enabled service.
Buddi currently offers two devices: a wristband that “can automatically detect falls and has buttons that can be pressed if you need help” and a clip-on device that “has an in-built speaker and a microphone enabling two-way communication when alerts are activated.”
The devices set to be rolled out by the UK Home Office and Ministry of Justice will also constantly track the locations of their wearers, according to The Guardian, which says the UK government expects to store information about the people it’s monitoring for up to six years.
It’s not clear from the report if the UK government expects Buddi to produce a smartwatch capable of taking pictures or if the images would be captured using a smartphone instead. Nor is it clear exactly how the government will determine who to track with these devices.
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The UK Home Office reportedly said the trackers “will be for foreign-national offenders who have been convicted of a criminal offence, rather than other groups, such as asylum seekers.” But that might not be the case—intentionally or not—once the devices are officially deployed.
The Guardian reports that the UK government expects to spend approximately $7.2 million (£6 million) on this program to start, but “the number of devices to be produced and the cost of each smartwatch was redacted in the contract,” so the full scope of the program remains unknown.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/report-uk-will-use-smartwatches-to-enable-constant-surveillance
