[aha] Obscurity Obfuscates 15M U.S. Criminals Records and Mugshots for the Right to Remove personal data from search engines - P.R. Paolo Cirio

Mar 12 Apr 2016 19:16:47 CEST

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
United States, April 12th 2016.

15 million mug-shots and criminal records of Americans have been
obfuscated to introduce the Right to Remove personal information from
search engines in the U.S.
https://OBSCURITY.online ( https://OBSCURITY.online )
A project by Paolo Cirio.

Obscurity cloned the major mug-shot websites and scrambled their
databases to obfuscate the information on over 15 million individuals
arrested in the U.S. over the last 20 years, making it difficult to
identify them on the Internet. Introductory videos:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=im4bqkGbEkI&list=PLJHWosFmMRqofm03UvU8_0tLKopTXKOra
(
https://youtube.com/watch?v=im4bqkGbEkI&list=PLJHWosFmMRqofm03UvU8_0tLKopTXKOra
)

The mug-shots have been blurred to make faces unrecognizable while
their names have been shuffled by an algorithm that samples data based
on common age, race, location, and charges, all of which are kept
accurate in order to provide social context on the actual individuals
arrested and the crimes they were accused of when they were booked in
jail.

The republished obfuscated data maintains the layout and watermarks
of the original mug-shot websites, and by using similar domain names
the project would effectively interfere with the activity, reputation,
and business of the mug-shot industry.
https://obscurity.online/?/l/About/#How (
https://obscurity.online/?/l/About/#How )

The Obscurity artwork deploys strategies that are oriented to
problem-solving as a form of Internet social art practice. By engaging
with the law, millions of individuals, bad business practices, and
general public opinion, this artwork seeks to embody a practical
discourse about the aesthetics, function, and ethics of information
systems affecting social structures that resonates within and outside
the contemporary art dialogue.
https://obscurity.online/?/l/About/#Artwork (
https://obscurity.online/?/l/About/#Artwork )

Mug-shot websites monetize by placing advertising of reputation
management services alongside listed booking data or by charging a
picture removal fee, which has led some state legislatures to propose
bills to regulate the industry. However, some mug-shot websites
operate in offshore jurisdictions and their owners are in hiding,
which makes difficult any kind of legal action. Furthermore, many
freedom of press organizations and legislators have been opposing
bills that would regulate the publication of mug-shots.
https://obscurity.online/?/l/About/#Mugshots (
https://obscurity.online/?/l/About/#Mugshots )

The visitors of the cloned mug-shot websites, as participants of the
online artwork, are able to decide whether to remove individual
profiles or instead keep them public by opting between two buttons,
"Remove it" or "Keep it."

Currently some online mug-shots are over ten years old, related to
low-level or nonviolent crimes such as driving without a license,
court-related or soft drug offenses, without making distinction
between people who are convicted and people whose charges have been
dropped. On the other hand, the mug-shots might be of dangerous
individuals such as sex offenders and serial killers as well as public
figures with social responsibility like bad doctors, corrupt
politicians, or fraudsters and therefore they should circulate for
public safety and social accountability.

To engage the public in this complex situation, the project proposes
a social experiment with a participatory judiciary system that would
increase understanding and promote change concerning the ethical,
legal, economic, and social contexts regarding personal information
circulating online.
https://obscurity.online/?/l/About/#Participatory (
https://obscurity.online/?/l/About/#Participatory )

A final element of this conceptual artwork is to hypothetically
intervene in U.S. legislation by designing a petition for a Right to
Remove personal and sensitive information from search engine results
in the U.S.
https://www.change.org/p/introducing-the-right-to-remove-personal-information-from-search-engines-in-the-us
(
https://www.change.org/p/introducing-the-right-to-remove-personal-information-from-search-engines-in-the-us
)

Obscurity taps at the core need of introducing a form of the Right To
Be Forgotten in the U.S., which has been strongly opposed by Internet
companies such as Google, and by many concerned about censorship which
could be caused by the abuse of the law. By collaborating with
lawyers, legislators, and privacy activists, the Right to Remove would
campaign for the introduction of an information policy in the U.S.
that provides the right to obscurity by removing from search engines
results with sensitive information that jeopardizes the privacy,
reputation, and security of ordinary citizens.
https://Right2Remove.us

Obscurity also wants to bring attention to the victims of mass
incarceration in the U.S., which has the highest rate of imprisonment
in the world and it questions the unscrupulous criminal justice system
and law enforcement agencies that created this situation.

For the offline installation, the artwork is presented with printers
and shredding machines that continually and instantly print and shred
pictures of mug-shots. The installation also displays screenings and
prints of mug-shots from the most significant incarceration cases,
such as the youngest and oldest individuals found in the database
assembled for the artwork.

The Obscurity project and the Right to Remove campaign are created by
the Italian artist Paolo Cirio as a conceptual artwork. The company
Paolo Cirio Ltd. based in London, UK, is the legal entity that
published the cloned websites and the obfuscated data. Many special
thanks to Anastasis Germanidis who worked as an engineer on the
project.

The Obscurity and the Right to Remove projects have premiered in a
lecture by Paolo Cirio at NYU Law in NYC on April 6th.

For future press inquiries and public presentations of the project,
you can write to studio a paolo-cirio.com For press material on the
project please visit this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1teb51x42xqo5e6/AAD-MJu7Z-afZpOu0QTxnk2na/Obscurity
(
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1teb51x42xqo5e6/AAD-MJu7Z-afZpOu0QTxnk2na/Obscurity
)

Thank you for your attention.
Paolo Cirio.
https://PaoloCirio.net

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