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Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab

amoses.dev

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Re: Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab

#11

Post by whimsicalism »

soggybread wrote: post #8
moralestapia wrote: post #7

Nice project but it could be illegal. Check your jurisdiction. Source: have done similar hobby projects for fun, which turned out to be illegal.

What part of this would be illegal? It's just a zigbee door sensor. The only issue I could see is the college getting upset but if anything they'd just say 'take it down'

object detection of people from images is probably what they are referring to. there are maybe some state laws that could be stretched to include that but i would say presumptively legal

Re: Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab

#12

Post by alexchantavy »

moralestapia wrote: post #7

Nice project but it could be illegal. Check your jurisdiction. Source: have done similar hobby projects for fun, which turned out to be illegal.

Bunch of restaurants use those fancy Nest cams that remember faces. Is this illegal too? Feels like it should be controlled in some way.

Re: Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab

#14

Post by bobbiechen »

iwontberude wrote: post #5

I have a stealth startup that designs privacy first solutions to share coarse data about what is inside of rooms without disclosing secrets. This is useful for many use cases, from detecting the number of people in a room to other motion sensing devices which are critical for health and human safety. Patents are pending.

That's great! It does feel like cameras generally collect more data than necessary for some purposes. I have a friend who works at Butlr, which uses thermal sensors to detect body heat (and avoid the privacy risks of cameras) - sounds like your startup is in a similar space.

I know you mentioned patents pending, but is there anything you can share about your approach?

Re: Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab

#15

Post by moralestapia »

alexchantavy wrote: post #12
moralestapia wrote: post #7

Nice project but it could be illegal. Check your jurisdiction. Source: have done similar hobby projects for fun, which turned out to be illegal.

Bunch of restaurants use those fancy Nest cams that remember faces. Is this illegal too? Feels like it should be controlled in some way.

>Feels like it should be controlled in some way.

It is. Check your jurisdiction.

Re: Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab

#16

Post by moralestapia »

whimsicalism wrote: post #10
moralestapia wrote: post #7

Nice project but it could be illegal. Check your jurisdiction. Source: have done similar hobby projects for fun, which turned out to be illegal.

this isn't facial recognition

???

Who's talking about that?

Re: Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab

#19

Post by moralestapia »

whimsicalism wrote: post #18
moralestapia wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

??? Who's talking about that?

why would it be illegal?

Generally, you cannot just record people without their consent; but this also largely depends on the jurisdiction/situation.

Almost nowhere (or actually nowhere?) are you allowed to set up a surveillance device into a space that is not public and it is not owned by you.

Re: Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab

#20

Post by packetlost »

moralestapia wrote: post #19
whimsicalism wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why would it be illegal?

Generally, you cannot just record people without their consent; but this also largely depends on the jurisdiction/situation. Almost nowhere (or actually nowhere?) are you allowed to set up a surveillance device into a space that is not public and it is not owned by you.

Public university labs are generally public as they're state property (in this particular case, UW Madison is a public state University). Further, recording video or pictures of people in public places is broadly legal in the US. There are only "presumption of privacy" restrictions which apply to places such as bathrooms and private property that is not visible from a public location (ex. a sidewalk).

Obv. IANAL and this is not legal advice.

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