From Control to Care: Rethinking Smart Access

What happens when a technology designed to secure property is suddenly required to  secure the health and well-being of people?

Ethics Lab’s Assistant Director and Design professor, Jonathan Healey, recently spoke on a panel at Proptech Conference for a Cause—a convening of the real estate technology industry’s leaders and investors examining what role services such as physical access control and visitor management might play in the midst of medical pandemics and social awakening. The panel, “Looking at the Future of Smart Access,” featured Lee Odess of Inside Access Control, Amit Garg of Tau Ventures, and Brigitte Daniel of WILCO Electronic Systems.

When imagining how we might return to offices, schools, and other places of congregation in the midst of COVID-19, smart building technologies find themselves at the physical front line. According to Jonathan, “There’s a lot the design of physical security systems can learn from this moment. Most ‘proptech solutions’ are optimized as systems of control–asserting rules of compatibility and allowing or rejecting access. Today’s medical emergency presents a new challenge that environments also attend to the health of their visitors and occupants, and respond in some way. This is best suited for a system optimized for care. So the question is can these original systems of control contribute?” He adds that, “while there’s a lot of interest in the potential of ‘smart’ technology, it’s important to notice who is a true user of the system versus who is a subject to the system. Biometric scanners and thermal cameras, by design, reduce a body to the compatibility requirements of a mechanical system—often with a functional margin for error disqualifying them to assess medical signs and systems. So they are not simply able to be just re-brand as an effective instrument for health and well-being since they don’t actually recognize a person or their social context—two fundamental tenets of a system optimizing for care.”

“Biometric scanners and thermal cameras...are not simply able to be rebranded as an effective instrument for health and well-being since they don’t recognize a person or their social context—two fundamental tenets of a system optimizing for care.”

Among his recommendations, Jonathan echoed Design Justice principles in emphasizing the need for technology solution providers to invest in collaborative partnerships with public health authorities and community advocates in order to better understand the social implications of their systems, including the nuanced needs, benefits, and harms experienced by groups both within the properties and beyond.