Privacy Matters Go Public in Radio Interview
By Anna Lynn Spitzer
Irvine, Calif., March 12, 2007 -- Privacy protection is fundamental to Calit2’s ResCUE/ResponSphere research. Lately, however, the project has been attracting some very public attention.
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The most recent “Igniting Technology” event on March 1 featured the NSF-funded research project. “One Step Ahead of the Crisis: Innovative Technology Solutions for Disaster Preparedness” attracted more than 70 interested community members who discovered how ResCUE’s research and the resulting technology is helping disaster responders better manage emergency situations.
And last week, Chris Davison, project technology manager, and a group of his student researchers were interviewed for a radio program that will air on KUCI March 21. “Privacy Piracy,” a weekly interview show hosted by local attorney and privacy consultant Mari Frank, set up shop in ResCUE’s project room to discuss why privacy is important to the project’s ongoing research and how it is being incorporated into technology prototypes.
Davison showed off the Calit2 “smart space” and ResponSphere’s latest high-tech devices, including Evac-Pack, mobile sensing platforms, RFID technology, sensor motes and people counters. Eight students – Xingbo Yu, Valentina Bonsi, Bijit Hore, Hojjat Jafarpour, Dani Massaguer, Ronen Vaisenberg, Ravi Chandra Jammalamadaka and Roberto Gamboni – discussed their specific areas of research, and engaged with Davison and Frank in a lively discussion on the ethics of information technologies and the law-enforcement aspect of those technologies.
“We had a very animated conversation,” says Davison. “Mari is an Orange County reserve sheriff, so she has a knowledgeable background in law enforcement. It was a real pleasure to talk with her regarding the many facets of individual privacy and the privacy aspects of information technology.”