Crowd Surveillance Poses a Data Dilemma

Sydney has come alive over recent weeks as the city celebrated the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, which doubled as the global WorldPride event for 2023.

An estimated 80,000 visitors came to the event, which injected an estimated AUD112 million into the city’s economy.

Many of those visitors, and also Sydney locals enjoying the event, would also have gone to a licensed club and spent some money on the poker and gaming machines which are a significant, if controversial, source of revenue for the clubs.

Where this is going is to contrast two uses of data, one by the Sydney Mardi Gras and the second by the licensed clubs in the city. 

The two case studies show how very similar types of data can be used for different purposes. And how in most instances, the people whose data is being used and who are being surveilled will have no idea that their everyday activities also have a life in digital analysis.

Mood analysis

At the Mardi Gras, organizers installed CCTV cameras on the street where the parade was held on February 25, 2023. These cameras were loaded with data analytics software to monitor not just crowd density but also its mood.

Provided by a company called Dynamic Crowd Measurement, the technology uses an API to deliver advanced real-time analytics to event organizers who are in contact with security staff and police, helping them streamline resources, movement and occupancy levels. In other cases, the software is also used by major retailers to plan and change developments 

In addition to the cameras, technology that counts mobile phones by measuring radiofrequency was installed in shopfronts throughout the suburbs around Oxford Street, where the parade was held.

In theory, the clubs could gain access to information on what people ate and drank, how much they gambled and who they met

The software categorized people as being happy, neutral, sad and angry, in addition to measuring the walking speed of groups.

The argument from Mardi Gras organizers was that this was all for safety. They needed the most detailed analysis possible to make decisions on crowd safety.

The tragic Halloween crowd crush in Seoul last year, where more than 150 people died, was foremost on the minds of the Mardi Gras organizers.

The data would let them identify points at which a combination of an exuberant or angry group combined with high crowd density might suddenly create a dangerous situation.

The organizers can turn off mood analysis features. But they argued they needed a complete analysis to make the best-informed decision on crowd safety. 

There were limits to the data collected. Facial recognition technology was not used, no personal data was collected, and the video was not recorded for later analysis. The system was taken down after the event.

Driving revenues

Contrast that use case with investments made by licensed clubs, who use number plates, facial recognition, heat mapping, and crowd counting as they seek to increase their revenues from poker machines.

Gamblers in New South Wales lost a record AUD2.1 billion in the last quarter of 2022, and it seems that technology is helping drive this business.

Facial recognition technology is being rolled out to identify problem gamblers and exclude them from venues. Still, it is unclear if the data might also be used for marketing purposes. 

In theory, the clubs could gain access to information on what people ate and drank, how much they gambled and who they met. 

Club operators reportedly have the ability to understand a person’s gender, age range, where he or she lives, and ethnicity with a few mouse clicks.

Local media quoted one software vendor who worked for a company that provides business intelligence tools that collate this kind of data. It helped one club increase its annual profit by AUD160,000 by targeting 550 people who had decreased their annual spending. 

The gaming industry, notably in Las Vegas, was among the first to implement CCTV technology around two decades ago. The development of technology to combine surveillance and marketing has become a gray area in Australia, mainly because the technology is ahead of the regulators. 

Australians are often highly critical of the government in China for its use of surveillance in the social credit system, which rates the trustworthiness of individuals.

Surveillance might have its uses to enhance crowd safety, as in the Mardi Gras example, and anonymized data can reasonably be used to plan commercial developments to make them more successful.

The line, however, is still blurry on if and how this data can be used to drive individual spending, particularly in a controversial industry such as gambling.

Lachlan Colquhoun is the Australia and New Zealand correspondent for CDOTrends and the NextGenConnectivity editor. He remains fascinated with how businesses reinvent themselves through digital technology to solve existing issues and change their entire business models. You can reach him at [email protected].

Image credit: iStockphoto/nicoletaionescu