Editor's note: How do you feel about being recorded without knowing it while riding in a taxi; your private conversations being recorded, images of you acting drunk, scandalous, or adulterous being captured? How do you feel about these "invasions of privacy" being leaked and uploaded to the Internet? These are but a few of the criticisms aimed at the recent nationwide trend of taxi companies installing monitoring equipment in their new taxis. The following article, published by Modern Express, a Jiangsu Province newspaper, exposes the recent "secret" installations of these monitoring systems in Nanjing, notes the system’s potential for leaking private information, and suggests how to amend this problem.

Hangzhou, Chongqing, Xi'an, Nanchang – many taxis in these cities have already installed monitoring systems, much to the chagrin of the public. Now, taxis in Nanjing, who have been "secretly" installing the same kind of monitoring systems in their cabs, can be added to that list. A reporter from the Modern Express newspaper recently discovered that more than 6,000 taxis in Nanjing have already had an image-recording webcam and audio recording equipment installed, and that by the end of the year, it is expected that that number will increase to 8,000 Nanjing cabs. As if this invasion of privacy wasn’t unnerving enough, the reporter’s investigation discovered that these pictures and audio recordings are accessible by many different work units, and that no safeguards have been put into place to protect the passenger’s personal information and privacy divulged in these recordings.

Welcomed by drivers, scorned by passengers

Each time a new passenger gets into his taxi, Mr Tian, a taxi driver in Nanjing, raises his head out of habit to glance at the rear-view mirror, which conceals a monitoring system inside: "I frequently encounter passengers where, the first thing they do after getting in the taxi is demand that I point the webcam away from them." Last month, Mr Tian upgraded his taxi, purchasing a new Hyundai Sonata. According to his company’s requirements, the car was also fitted with a webcam and recording equipment, both installed behind the rear-view mirror. The reporter, while in Mr Tian's taxi, noticed the small camera sticking out from the rear-view mirror, pointed at the back seat of the cab. Mr Tian told the reporter that the unit was fairly obvious, and if passengers were attentively looking around the taxi, they would likely see it: "While some passengers don’t mind, many of them demand that I move the webcam." Actually, as far as taxi drivers are concerned, this monitoring system is quite a welcomed addition, as it gives them a sense of security. Even though taxis were previously equipped with GPS, this unit was only able to locate the vehicle, not deter passengers from criminal behaviour.

The Nanjing Passenger Management Department told the reporter that the city had been installing monitoring equipment in new taxis since last year. However, these inner-taxi monitoring systems differ from street cameras in that they cannot record video. According to the reporter’s understanding of the situation, the monitoring system is automatically triggered whenever the taxi meter is flipped on, after which a continuous stream of audio is recorded while a webcam takes eight pictures per minute at 640 × 480 resolution. This audio and image information is then transmitted via the GPS unit to the Public Security Bureau and the Passenger Traffic Management Department’s surveillance centre. The webcam's on-board storage capacity is about 8,000 images, and the audio recording equipment is on a continuous loop (writing over old data) and can record about 480 hours of audio. This audio and image information is transmitted back to the surveillance centre where it will be stored for several months, so that it can be retrieved for potential inquiries.

Who is watching?

An official from the Nanjing Public Security Bureau told the reporter that the data is generally stored on a computer and is not openly accessible. However, in the event of a court case or a dispute, they will go over the monitored information for potential evidence. Of course the Public Security Bureau can access this information, but what about the drivers of taxis with this equipment installed, or the equipment manufacturers? They could also have access to this information, even without the approval of the Public Security Bureau. It seems that many people could potentially access this information, which then opens the door for the passengers’ private information to leak. While talking to the reporter, Lawyer Gao Jun cited the prior "groping gate" incident (摸奶门事件) that occurred in Mianyang, Sichuan Province (an image was leaked online of a man photographed by a street camera groping the woman in the passenger seat of the car) as a good reason to "sound the alarm about the invasions of privacy that the new taxi monitoring system poses.

Questions of legality and informing the passengers

According to Gao Jun, "Since taxis are not part of the public transit system, passengers are guaranteed some degree of privacy." In the case of taxis, unlike commuter buses, after you get in the vehicle, it legally becomes your personal space, during which time the passenger’s privacy should be protected. Gao Jun stated that according to Article 23 of the "Jiangsu Province Informatisation Regulations", passed by the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress in September 2011, "Units and individuals outside the state’s organs that collect information on citizens, legal persons and other organisations must be given consent to collect this information, and must explain the purpose of that information."

In other words, monitoring systems in taxis must first be given consent by the passengers before they can legally monitor them. Yet, the reporter found that taxis in Nanjing have not yet installed anything explaining to the passengers that they are being monitored, and many passengers are still completely unaware of it. Gao Jun notes, "The best thing to do is to put up a notice in the vehicle: ‘This taxi has a monitoring device installed which records the duration of your trip’." Gao Jun said that by informing passengers of the monitoring system, if the passenger still choses to ride in the cab, it implies that they have given consent to be recorded. After passengers have been recorded, as stipulated by the "Jiangsu Province Informatisation Regulations", personal information must be strictly protected, and must not be spread publicly.
 

Source: kb.dsqq.cn 

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Keywords: Nanjing taxi monitoring system new taxi recording system China China taxi recording passengers China taxi monitoring system China privacy violations