University of Saskatchewan
Hi Wildlabs members,
I've been working with @csandbrook , @StephODonnell and others to develop a set of principles for the responsible use of surveillance technologies and their data in conservation. We plan to publish these principles in a peer-reviewed paper but before we do that we'd like to get feedback on a summary of these principles from experienced conservation tech users. This will help us to ensure that we’re not overlooking any important considerations, and that our proposed guidance will be helpful to the conservation community. That summary is in the attached pdf file: please comment! If you'd like us to acknowledge your feedback to us please say so in your response. Thanks!
8 June 2020 10:31pm
Hello - I have a number of thoughts and some references, as we tried drafting an "ethical AI for conservation" piece about a year ago. What's your preferred platform for publishing this and do you want a giant file of hopefully relevant papers?
9 June 2020 9:28am
You need to flag this for the groups that are using the technologies, not just for the ethics in conservation group.
9 June 2020 9:30am
It is not clear what you hope to achieve by publishing this.
As a specific example of a clear problem; poachers are likely to be camera trapped (indeed that is the explicit intent of some camera trapping programmes) - are the a vulnerable sub-group which has to be consulted and their informed consent obtained ? How do we identify the poachers so that we can consult them ? How likely are they to grant consent ?
It is practically impossible to limit camera trap captures to "only collect data that is necessary for a specific intended purpose,..." and bycatch is often as valubale as the target data. There are large scale efforts to systematically archive camera trap images and videos - these should certainly not be deleted "when they are no longer needed" - archived historical images used outside their original purpose are a critical resource in tracking global change.
9 June 2020 2:42pm
Glad to see this. Occurred to me yesterday, hanging up the phone while out on my porch and glanced at my audiomoth on a nearby tree...now wondering what I've said that could have been picked up! Eeek! I enjoyed seeing that last bullet on data privacy and hope that is something that is carried forward for sure.
Kate Wing
Intertidal Agency