Uni spies on protesters, uses data to punish them

The University of Melbourne has tracked students who staged a pro-Palestinian sit-in at a campus building, capturing CCTV footage and wi-fi location data that it will use as evidence in misconduct trials due to start this week.

Human rights experts and student have expressed concerns the tracking is in contravention of the university’s own policies on using tracking technology to identify students.

Twenty-one students who are facing possible suspension or expulsion over the protests have been emailed CCTV images of themselves inside the Arts West building on the university’s Parkville campus building in May, during the seven-day sit in.

Alongside the zoomed-in stills – taken from cameras that appear to capture each corner of the building – were details of the students’ use of the campus wi-fi network, which the university said was evidence of alleged wrongdoing that will be presented when misconduct trials begin on Wednesday.

Dana Alshaer, a Palestinian on a scholarship to study international relations, said the use of surveillance technology triggered a familiar feeling of being watched while at home in the West Bank.

‘‘Palestinians are the most surveilled population in the world, you have CCTV cameras everywhere you turn,’’ said Alshaer, who has almost completed her master’s degree.

She said she’d felt ‘‘oppressed and surveilled again’’ finding out that the university had used technology to track her.

Melbourne University did not respond to questions from The Sunday Age about whether it had breached the students’ privacy by tracking movements.

A spokesperson said the university would not comment on individual matters, in line with its confidentiality requirements and its commitment to procedural fairness under university policy.

The university’s use of technology to identify protesters has drawn criticism from legal professionals and human rights activists.

In 2016, the university responded to privacy concerns by claiming its new tracking technology – which it said was introduced to improve retention rates – could not be used to identify individual students.

Education reporter

At the time, academics raised the concern of function creep, warning the stated purpose for collecting data could change over time.

Melbourne University states on its website that it is governed by the Victorian Privacy and Data Protection Act.

It says its policy for collecting biometric data from staff and students ‘‘is voluntary and based on your consent’’.

Digital Rights Watch lawyer Lizzie O’Shea questioned whether the university was complying with privacy legislation.

The university had said in 2016 it was compliant because students could not be identified.

‘‘If I was talking to Melbourne University, I’d be asking … is it deidentified, or isn’t it?’’ she said.

‘‘The next question is: was it collected by consent?’’

O’Shea said when some businesses were identified as having used facial recognition technology in recent years it had sparked a public outcry.

‘‘I think this is a similar scenario. When you go to university, you’re not necessarily expecting that a wi-fi login and even facial images from CCTV will be used for something like [this],’’ she said.

O’Shea said it was important from a human rights perspective to consider whether the use of private data had been necessary and justified.

‘‘You’d have to assess how disruptive these protests were,’’ she said.

Zara Chauvin-Cunningham, a second-year science and classical Latin student, also faces a misconduct hearing this week for her joining the sit-in.

Chauvin-Cunningham, who is Jewish, said the protesters had welcomed her participation.

‘‘We had Shabbat at the camp. We had Jewish speakers in multiple times. There has been nothing on campus even vaguely resembling what I would consider radical,’’ she said.

Chauvin-Cunningham said she had protested knowing there could be consequences, but the misconduct notice had still come as a shock.

On October 7 last year, Hamas fighters crossed the border into Israel and killed 1200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli officials. Gazan health authorities report more than 37,000 people have died during the subsequent invasion of the territory by Israel.

UniMelb for Palestine established an encampment on the university lawns in April, and in May protesters marched across the campus. Another group of students – separate from UniMelb for Palestine – staged a sit-in at the Arts West building.

About 50 students ignored the university’s request to leave – delivered over megaphone by the then acting provost Pip Nicholson.

On May 16, students sleeping in the hall woke to a message over the loudspeaker warning them to leave or risk disciplinary action.

Classes in the Arts West building were cancelled and notices were posted across the campus advising students their protest was unauthorised.

At the time, deputy vice chancellor Michael Wesley called the protesters ‘‘intimidating’’ and warned via a video statement the continued ‘‘occupation’’ of the Arts West building could see the police called in.

The university issued a statement saying the protest was an unacceptable safety and security risk and that it was ‘‘deeply concerned’’ about ‘‘damage to university property’’.

On May 22, Alshaer led discussions which saw the university agree to transparency regarding its research funding deals with weapons manufacturers and foreign militaries in exchange for an end to the sit-in.

Provost Nicola Phillips said freedom of speech is foundational to the University of Melbourne’s values and policies.

‘‘We have consistently stated that we recognise the right of students and staff to participate in peaceful protest,’’ she said.

Barrister Julian Burnside is a committee member of Liberty Victoria, which pointed to the implications of the university’s use of tracking technology in 2018.

Burnside said students standing up for the women and children of Gaza was a legitimate reason for protest.

‘‘If their location has been assessed by watching where the phone is, I think it’s an outrageous breach of privacy,’’ he said.