Privacy Games the Vancouver Olympics, Privacy and Surveillance

Privacy Games The Vancouver Olympics, Privacy and Surveillance A Report to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada Under the Contributions Program March 2009 Authors Philip J. Boyle Department of Sociology University of Alberta Kevin D. Haggerty Department of Sociology University of Alberta c/o Department of Sociology University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H4 2 Executive Summary The Olympics now amount to a recently, the targeting of the Sri machine for change, helping to Lankan national cricket team in initiate transformation in the Pakistan provides yet another host city and country that take reminder that sport is not place at different levels and immune from political violence. culminate in legacies that persist long after the closing The September 11th terrorist ceremonies. This includes attacks helped radically expand legacies that are manifest at the the corporate market in security corporate, urban and political products and services to such an levels. extent that we can now speak of a global ‘security industrial Olympic officials typically complex.’ While Olympic security accentuate the positive legacies only accounts for a fraction of that the Games can produce in the total amount spent on terms of new stadia, security internationally, the infrastructure projects, and even security price tag for these national pride and collective events can still be impressive. memory. There are, however, Close to $1 billion (CAN) is now some less discussed Olympic budgeted for security for the legacies pertaining to security 2010 Games, well beyond the and surveillance that deserve initial estimate of $175 million attention. Since the 1972 Munich (CAN). Security costs cover many Games, when Palestinian things, but in the current context militants murdered 11 Israeli one cannot separate security athletes, event organizers have from surveillance. A raft of been anxious about security. security measures aim to make Such fears were borne out again people, places and processes when Eric Rudolph detonated a visible in new ways using diverse bomb at the Centennial Olympic tactics and technologies. Some of Park during the 1996 Atlanta the notable surveillance‐related Olympics, killing one person and technologies and practices that injuring over 100 others. The have been deployed at recent recent spate of terrorist attacks Games include biometric in New York, Washington, identification cards, toxic London and Madrid have put material scanners and detectors, security on the agenda like never computerized background before, altering the face of the checks, CCTV cameras, Games while also producing a magnetometers, satellite host of wider technological and monitoring, cellular telephone attitudinal changes. More monitoring (both legal and 3 illegal), overhead will serve the host city and communications/ monitoring country for years to come. blimps, traveller profiling and the increased integration of Such developments are artificial intelligence into a host important because of the wider of private and public sector surveillance legacies of the databases. In addition to the Games. Executives, drawn by the bewildering variety of prospect of a financial windfall, surveillance measures employed are developing innovative, to secure the Games, the intensified and integrated integration of various monitoring technologies surveillance technologies is specifically for the unique risks perhaps one of the most posed to the Olympic Games. In remarkable and, from a privacy the process, the surveillance perspective, disconcerting facets infrastructure established for the of Olympic security efforts. Olympics expands and each new iteration becomes the standard Security considerations make the to build upon for future Games. Olympics important moments in Moreover, security firms the development and dispersal of capitalize on the prestige of their surveillance. Public officials Olympic involvement to promote occasionally use the pretext of their technologies and systems the Olympics to introduce forms as security solutions for other of surveillance that the public major events and more prosaic might oppose in any other security situations. Designed for context, capitalizing on the fact the unique risks of an that in anticipation of the Games exceptional global sporting event citizens tend to be more tolerant and driven by the search for new of intrusive security measures. markets and profits, the As the Games are bounded in technologies, expertise and space and time, security planners contacts characteristic of also treat them as an opportunity Olympic security therefore risk to conduct real‐world tests of dispersing into more mundane new informational and contexts, simultaneously technological systems. The routinizing and intensifying Olympics have consequently security. become a crucible for experiments in monitoring. After Beyond the role of the Olympics the Games, however, these in creating and extending new systems may not disappear but surveillance measures, the stay, delivered and justified as Games can also shape public public safety and/or counter‐ attitudes in ways that are both terrorism enhancements that vital to understand but difficult 4 to demarcate. The tremendous global media attention dedicated Such legacies have emerged from to the Games now involves a many previous Olympics in steady drip‐feed of stories about recent decades. However, in the security preparations. Reporters post‐9/11 period, these legacies photograph rooftop snipers, map are no longer accidental, security zones, and provide unintended or partial outcomes. wide‐eyed accounts of the They, like transportation technological abilities of new improvements and property screening technologies. Such development, are entirely stories cumulatively amount to a planned deliverables, just form of public instruction in the another beneficial outcome to be ‘new realities’ of security. ‘leveraged’ from an opportune Citizens are familiarized with the moment. As these legacies new routines of high security, a continue to reach beyond the process that helps normalize time and space of the event, the practices that might otherwise Games themselves provide a be seen as intrusive. The glimpse of a possible militarized, proliferating security routines surveilled urban future. characteristic of the Olympics therefore fosters a security‐ The Vancouver 2010 Olympics infused pedagogy of acceptable will undoubtedly provide comportment, dress and unprecedented opportunities for documentation, as small lessons a global audience to witness in security are inflated and memorable athletic played out before a global performances. We also need to audience. This reinforces the contemplate whether one sense to which it becomes self‐ unanticipated consequence of evident that such measures are the Games is that we, as required, that they do not unduly Canadian citizens, might not also infringe upon personal liberties, find also ourselves visible in that certain dangers are ways for which we had not pervasive – and more pressing bargained, a visibility that than other risks – and that the inevitably involves diminished existing constellation of security personal privacy. interests is inevitable. 5 Introduction Drawn by national pride and the of Vancouver presented these prospect of witnessing world‐ events as providing: class athletic performances, an enthusiastic global audience has “an opportunity for the City of made the Olympic Games some Vancouver to foster civic pride of the most observed events in and a greater sense of history. The sheer scope of this community in our residents, to viewership has also meant that create positive experiences and for a long time now the Olympics fond memories for our visitors, have been far more than a and to captivate the media sporting event. Massive through a festive environment, international audiences, positive images and broad combined with the promotional exposure to one of the most efforts of Olympics organizers, liveable cities in the world” (City have made the Games one of the of Vancouver 2006a: 4). world’s premiere corporate sponsorship venues and For organizers, however, the advertising platforms. For extensive publicity of the Games organizers a large part of the is a mixed blessing. It is now appeal of the Games is that they routine for protesters to use the provide an opportunity to Games’ global media profile as an fashion and promote an opportunity to advance various attractive image of the host city social causes. While some might and country to these same see this as regrettable, such non‐ audiences, something that is violent protest is a legitimate important for national pride but and ultimately laudable attribute also for international trade and of living in a free society. tourism (Hiller 2006). Looking forward to the 2010 Olympics More disturbing is the prospect and Paralympic Games1, the City that terrorists2 will target the 2 The term ‘terrorist’ is famously difficult to define, as one group’s terrorists are 1 For clarity sake we use the expression ‘the another’s freedom fighters or guerrilla Olympics’ or ‘the Games’ in this document to soldiers. For our purposes here we simply include both the Olympics as well as the treat terrorist extremely broadly as those Paralympic Games that follow the Olympics. individuals who would use violence to We are aware that these are separate events disrupt the Olympics to further a social or that present different types of security and political cause. We leave it to others to safety

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