Electronic monitoring (EM) was implemented under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and it is largely outsourced and managed by the private security companies. EM is a surveillance tool designed to track offenders and suspects, verify their whereabouts and establish remotely whether they are complying with a set of pre-established conditions as stated in the court or prison order. Under the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004, the use of this technology was extended to immigration controls, and individuals deemed as ‘high risk’ of harm, reoffending or absconding are fitted with an ankle device and subjected to curfew. The initial device consisted of a radio-frequency technology, designed to measure person’s distance between tag and the base-unit and establish whether they are at home or not (in other words, gather binary data). However, in 2021, the Home Office adopted a new generation of ankle tags, equipped with a fundamentally different and more intrusive technology – the Global Positioning System (“GPS ankle tags”). These tags monitor individual geolocation continuously and gather a vast amount of trail data. Records of subject’s geolocation data are then stored and retained for years, available for authorities to access for a wide variety of purposes. In 2022, the EM provision was extended to asylum seekers who recently arrived on boats and via other irregular means. In this chapter, we shed light on the evolution of tagging technology, privacy intrusion and the breach of data protection, and how it is experienced by racialised minorities. Towards the end, we outline the resistance by the third sector organisations and legal professionals. The chapter uncovers the racial dynamics of the technology, and adds to the literature on migration, surveillance studies, critical data studies, and state racism.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)