survillance

• Surveillance


  Refers to the monitoring of individuals both by agencies of formal and informal social control
• Surveillance has become much easier with the advent of the digital age and the use of mobile and internet technologies
• Foucault's ideas of self-discipline and the panopticon are still relevant today and can be applied to the way technology is used for surveillance
• Foucault illustrated the movement towards psychological control by drawing on the panopticon, a prison designed by Jeremy Bentham
• Surveillance is not just conducted by those with power
• Fear of being caught in the panopticon led prisoners to self-regulate their behavior


  Correcting their impulses to behave in inappropriate ways
• French philosopher Michel Foucault: 'Drawing on a range of influences including psychoanalysis, argued that civilization has led to a movement away from physical punishment to psychological control over individuals'
• Surveillance achieved through

  Collating data on individuals, monitoring their movements, interactions with others, personal preferences, tastes, and affiliations
• Digital devices can collate massive amounts of data about individuals, which can be used to monitor behaviors and even alter opinions
• Individuals are scrutinizing the actions of politicians, including their voting records, past statements, connections, and expenses
• Society has evolved, and surveillance has become an increasingly common way of exercising control over individuals
• The panopticon was a circular prison with a central guard tower, allowing guards to see what prisoners were doing in their cells without prisoners knowing if they were being watched
• Surveillance can be used to control people's behavior


  Not only externally but also through forcing them to change their own behaviors for fear of being watched
• The birth of the digital age has led to a form of bottom-up surveillance where many can survey the few
• The electronic panopticon is constructed due to the increased use of electronic and digital technology by individuals in their everyday lives
• State monitoring has been criticized as deterministic and potentially able to profile people based on ethnicity and political affiliations
• This is an example of surveillance from below with the masses observing the behavior of the elites
• Surveillance alters our behavior as everybody is watching each other
• People monitor one another's social media accounts for content that may be inflammatory or cause offense
• Crimes captured on smartphones and uploaded to the internet

  • Racist abuse
  • Homophobic abuse
• A freedom of information request on MP expenses in the early part of the 21st century led to a scandal that saw eight members of parliament imprisoned for incorrectly claiming expenses with many others forced to repay their expenses
• Surveillance has the potential for labeling individuals as criminals should they be called in for questioning
• Actuarial justice


  Data collected from phones and laptops is used to target individuals with adverts that fit their profile and predict criminal and dissident behaviors
• Synopticon or synoptic surveillance


  Behaviors are monitored not just by those in power but by those in close proximity to an individual
• State monitoring looks to predict whether individuals have the potential for committing crime
• Surveillance is not immune to the influence of the powerful, with acts often manipulated by the media to protect the wealthy or preserve the status quo in society
• Integrated surveillance techniques


  • Systems communicate with one another to increase the amount of data recorded and capture the movements of individuals
• Surveillance assumes that people's behaviors are the result of rational actions
• People can be categorized by the risk they pose to society based on websites they visit, purchases, and contacts
• CCTV often captures crimes and leads to successful prosecutions but doesn't act as an effective deterrent
• Examples of surveillance


  • Use of recording equipment in cars and on bikes to record the behaviors of other drivers on the road
• People have started to survey others and record the behavior of other individuals
• Actuarial justice does not take into account the free will that individuals display
• Internalized surveillance


  People make adjustments to their behaviors as they know they are being monitored