“China Communist Party vibe” Swellnet’s Torquay cam caught tagging beachgoers with AI

"There's a blurry line there that doesn't feel quite right."

The surf forecasting giant Swellnet has switched off an AI tracking function on its Torquay North surf camera after a Geelong Advertiser investigation found it had spent days tagging people on the beach.

The camera went live ahead of the grand final long weekend. According to the Advertiser, green digital markers appeared on individuals and followed them around the frame, footage anyone with a sub could watch on the Swellnet app and website. The feature ran from Wednesday, September 23 through to the end of the long weekend and evaporated only after the Geelong Advertiser started asking questions.

Torquay North is one link in Swellnet’s national chain of cams, which allow paying subscribers to examine the surf.

Swellnet’s celebrated and admired chief executive Ben Matson told the Geelong Advertiser, perhaps with eyebrows raised in mild astonishment on that twinkle-grinning tough guy face, that there was “nothing nefarious” going on, and that the company doesn’t track anyone.

“What happens is, when you install, cameras these days come with AI stuff,” he said. “They come with that (tracking) feature turned on automatically. I don’t know how to use that side of the cameras, we’ve never tracked anything ever.”

Matson said the AI thing was a botched update. “I’ve realised our technicians did firmware update, and they missed that (tracking) part,” he said, adding that the feature has to be disabled by hand.”

The green boxes are now gone, but the people aren’t. The Geelong Advertiser found the Torquay North cam still takes in beachgoers on the sand at low tide. Matson described that to the paper as a “compromise” that gives a better view of the waves without the hassle of a more complicated camera setup.

“It’s kind of like a bit of China Communist Party people tracking vibe about that on the beach,” Chris Cameron, a Melbourne man on the beach at Torquay North, told the Geelong Advertiser.

“The camera is there to let you know what the swell looks like for surfers, not who is on the beach. Maybe they could focus the camera on the surf. I have two boys, I can imagine if had girls, having a camera that is capturing people generally at the beach … I don’t know, there’s a blurry line there that doesn’t feel quite right.”

Jan Juc surfer Phil Rosevear defended the cam, howevs.

“It gives you a chance to check out how you’re surfing the wave and whether you’re doing it well or not (although) I can also see if I was a young girl having a quiet sunbake on the beach, I might have a completely different point of view.”

None of this is new territory for Swellnet on the Surf Coast. In late 2023 criminologist Dr Monique Mann started a petition to have the company’s Winki Pop camera taken down.

As the state broadcaster reported at the time,

The furore over the camera — which is discreetly attached to a private home overlooking the Winki Pop surf break at Bells Beach on Victoria’s Surf Coast — centres on privacy fears and now involves a petition of 2,500 signatures bolstered by a local surf group and an academic report.

Those who oppose the camera say it breaches people’s right to privacy and is in conflict with the rules and values surrounding Bells Beach being a Surfing Recreation Reserve, which includes a ban on commercial activity without a permit.

The Winki Pop camera can also only be accessed by those with a subscription to online surf forecast company Swellnet for a price of $10 a month, which has led to accusations from some locals of “filming public activity for private gain”.

Surfrider’s Darren Noyes-Brown described that camera as a “violation of core values… They have barged in with this surfcam, haven’t consulted with the local community, hoping the community doesn’t push back against it.”