“Citizen” app: The digital neighborhood watch | tagesschau.de

The controversial app “Citizen” is intended to warn people in the US about dangers in the area. Car accidents, house fires and shoplifting can be reported and commented on by users. Privacy advocates are sounding the alarm.

“Citizen” works like any social media app: create a profile, choose a username, activate the location so that the app knows where the user is. There is a map on the home screen. Small symbols indicate what is happening in the vicinity – for example car accidents and a warning that a man has been spotted with a knife nearby. Some users also upload videos: A woman apparently saw a shooting in a McDonald’s restaurant. She shares her impressions with a video, comments on what she sees.

The app receives warnings from users on the one hand, and also from the police directly on the other – the police radio is tapped and partially uploaded with the help of artificial intelligence. Listening to the police radio is not necessarily a criminal offense in the USA.

Police provide the app with data

The police do not see any competition in the app, says Matthew Guariglia from the data protection organization Electronic Frontier Foundation. “The police and emergency call centers provide this app with data to alert neighborhoods,” he says. “There seems to be a collaboration with these types of apps.”

Every now and then “Citizen” employees go live on the platform, such as a fire near the airport in Los Angeles. The moderator describes what can be seen on the videos sent and reads out user comments. The users can rate the incidents with emojis, a praying hands emoji expresses compassion, but you can also get angry or send a heart.

And then there are incidents that can be very problematic: A user has stood on a motorway bridge, he is filming a car accident with at least one dead. You can see wreckage and rescue workers.

Homeless man was falsely accused

The problem with the app is that the personal rights of the people who are being filmed are not protected, says data protectionist Guariglia. Things got really nasty in Los Angeles last May, he says: “‘Citizen’ thought a homeless man had started a fire in the city. The creators had given out a reward of 30,000 dollars for people who helped to arrest this man this app to a bounty hunter platform. “

The suspect turned out to be the wrong one. The “Citizen” app makers apologized. But it is precisely these incidents that give Guariglia stomach ache: “It’s mostly about finding suspicious people. This gives people a simple tool for racial profiling, racist controls to exclude people from the neighborhood.”

“Citizen” tried out a new feature in the USA: In Los Angeles, a black “Citizen” SUV, which looks like a special police unit, was to be on the road and could be called in the event of an incident. Due to persistent criticism, the project was initially evaporated. But for a fee of $ 20 you can call a “Citizen” agent. In a promotional video it is said that the agents listen to the concerns of the users and take action, for example calling the police or an ambulance.

App can protect against legal consequences

Privacy advocate Guariglia believes that this very service will cause even more problems and false accusations. “Some people feel guilty if they don’t dial the emergency number for emergencies, for example if a homeless person is standing on the street corner and they want the police to remove him,” he says. “Because they know that incidents like this can sometimes be violent, even fatal. Calling someone to call the police for you can relieve you of that guilt a little.”

Or even legal consequences: the case of a woman from New York who had seen a black man in Central Park as a threat and called the police, went through the newspapers last year. The public prosecutor’s office was investigating suspicion of racism. Although the charges were dropped, it turns out that the app will make it easier to suspect even innocent people.