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Privacy and Surveillance

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Privacy and Surveillance

Surveillance is the observation of people's movements and behaviours to influence,

manage, or protect them. Organizations can sometimes conduct surveillance in secret. Disease

surveillance, for example, monitors the spread of a disease within a community (WSI

technologies, 2016). CCTV cameras, for example, can be used to intercept Internet data or phone

calls. Postal interception and human intelligence operatives are examples of low-tech

surveillance. Surveillance helps governments maintain control over individuals, identify and

monitor threats, and prevent crime (WSI technologies, 2016). Surveillance can have both

beneficial and negative consequences. This paper focuses on understanding privacy as a

surveillance problem and how to deal with it.

Privacy refers to the freedom to keep private information about a person or activities and

to do so selectively. Privacy can be a person or group (Bloustein, 2018). People who value their

privacy are more likely to be sensitive or special than those who don't value their privacy.

Privacy and security share several principles, such as the proper use and protection of

information, which sometimes overlap (Post, 2000). According to Finn et al., (2013), privacy can

be of body, intimate relations, personal information and space, psychological, emotional and

financial. Technology enables us to communicate with the rest of the world, stay connected with

our loved ones, and organize for social change. However, the government and businesses may

use these same capabilities to spy on innocent people, muzzle dissenting voices, persecute

communities of colour, and violate everyone's right to privacy in the name of national security.

The surveillance theory was first developed by utilitarian Jeremy Bentham, the

panopticon designer (Wood, 2021). The design was initially made for a prison with all the cells

clear and flooded with light in a circle formation with a guard tower at the centre (Kaschadt,
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2002). It was designed such that one guard could watch over all the prisoners at once, and the

prisoners could not see the guard. The idea was to reform the prisoners due to the feeling of

being watched and maintaining good behaviour (Wood, 2021). Bentham made it clear that the

design was not only for prisons and could be used for institutions where monitoring was required

(Bentham, 1791). The initial design was created by Jeremy’s brother Samuel for a factory so that

all the workers could do their job well (Wood, 2021). Over the years, the design of the

panopticon kept improving, and ways were developed of hearing conversations. This way, the

prisoners were robbed of the privacy of their actions and their words. Also, during these times,

the public was allowed to view how reformed the prisoners were, which may have caused an

adverse reaction from the prisoners, which led to people refusing the procedures of the said

institutions. No matter what they had done wrong, these individuals were still human beings and

deserved respect like everyone else. Being watched by the guards was allowed since it was a

prison, but public viewing was extreme. That is why society's trust in those institutions was lost.

The theory of surveillance was furthered by French writer Michel Foucault, the author of

discipline and punish. Foucault takes us through how punishment was done in medieval times;

how it was a show of power and authority to carry out very harsh, inhumane punishments to

wrongdoers in public (Foucault, 1977). His review of Bentham’s panoptic became panopticism

(Wood, 2021). According to him, the reformatory system was supposed to be celebrated.

Foucault also spoke about subjectification which was surveillance that employed biopolitics

(Foucault, 1977). There existed the categories of the governors and the governed;

governmentality (Foucault, 1977). The modern-day form of this is the online surveillance done

by the government. This kind of surveillance has not reduced the percentage of crimes

committed but has created a delicate issue. Online surveillance has resulted in invasions of
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privacy, as everything that users access is recorded and disseminated without their knowledge or

consent. Government monitoring in the United States has not had a significant detrimental

impact on society because the information saved is not utilized. There was no action done to

prevent crimes and terrorist acts, and the massive storage of personal data in the past years

resulted in cases of privacy violations.

Since government eavesdropping creates potential threats to public trust, personal

privacy, and civil liberties, domestic programs that allow significant amounts of data to be

collected and maintained must be terminated (Moore, 2011). The law would remove the

government's obligation for bulk telephony metadata storage and leave it on the shoulders of the

telecommunications industry. Governments and law enforcement organizations have utilized

surveillance to abuse their authority (Moore, 2011). The vast majority of people believe that a

group with this much power may readily exploit others. There have been cases of blackmail,

framing, and other controversies due to observations conducted through specialized techniques.

Whenever we are in a public place, we are almost certainly being monitored by some

surveillance technology. It has become so commonplace in the last decade that we hardly think

about looking for them, even though the vast majority of them are hidden. Furthermore, social

media is a type of surveillance in the sense that any material posted has the potential to be seen

by virtually everyone on the planet, including potential employers, schools, and law enforcement

(Duffy & Chan, 2019). As technology improves, it becomes more difficult to protect one's

privacy rights. Stalking and other worrisome scenarios, such as being videotaped by another

person while going about their everyday business, are also reported daily. Allowing the broader

public access to monitoring makes the entire community be severely compromised.

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Thousands of people have been falsely charged due to the revelation of recordings and

internet records. Every day, nearly 1,500 audio and video records requests are made in the

United Kingdom alone. Businesses are increasingly examining our comments and comparing

them to the words of someone who poses an actual threat to their operations (Duffy & Chan,

2019). In the early 2000s, a man from the United States was arrested and charged with first-

degree murder. Ten years after being imprisoned, it was discovered that he was innocent, and he

was released on bond. In this case, surveillance footage was utilized against him, and he was

falsely convicted due to the evidence given. Whether or not tangible evidence is uncovered,

surveillance is still considered concrete evidence. In many circumstances, it can result in the

false conviction of many persons (Duffy & Chan, 2019). Surveillance footage alone should not

be used in court to convict someone. Rather, the suspected party should be allowed a trial and be

listened to and not destroy their lives without having a chance to voice their opinions.

There were many other philosophers of the surveillance theory who came after Foucault.

One of them was Gilles Deleuze, who believed that Bentham's theory of soul reformation and

Foucault's subjectification were no longer important (Deleuze, 1992). He believed that the flow

was what was important and was the one who saw surveillance as making constituents out of

subjects (Deleuze, 1992). According to him, Systems can begin delivering launches almost

anywhere, and groupings are made up of linked devices that work as a unit to give flows more

permanence (Deleuze & Guattari 1987). It no longer mattered why people did what they did. He

likened data collected in multiple databases to multiple bodies used differently. The multiple

databases today's main source of data is social media.

Some industry watchers believe users of social networking websites to be engaging in a

sort of participatory surveillance. They disclose personal information about public services for
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anyone to view. To obtain personal information from future or present employees, around 15%

of businesses use social media. If an employer looks at a personal Facebook page or if a school

runs a "sweep" through student social media accounts, any information recorded may become

public. If they have an unfavourable perception of anything, an individual may suffer long-term

consequences. Using social media, email, and texting apps allows police enforcement to easily

obtain a vast amount of information about a person and their actions. Like physical proof, media

proof is accepted as acceptable evidence (Wood, 2021). Human beings are social beings, and

they have very different ideas about what the correct lifestyle is or what a normal social life

looks like. Social media gives people the freedom to express themselves most comfortably.

Social media surveillance limits this freedom, which makes people hide or stay in their shells

when they would have probably brought wonderful inventions or gotten help if needed. In a way,

the surveillance is causing people to suffer and should only be limited to suspicious accounts and

even those, the data collected should be authorized.

One of the earliest philosophers in the surveillance field was Karl Marx; even though the

word he used was direction, the meaning is similar. He was concerned with work surveillance,

more like what Samuel Bentham wanted to do to his factory, except that there was no panopticon

this time. Marx was a great supporter of capitalism (Wood, 2021). He believed in forcing

labourers to work for factory owners, who would accumulate wealth from the surplus value of

labour. However, for this to happen, cooperation had to be ensured, leading to a quasi-military

system for ensuring discipline (Wood, 2021). There was surveillance at every stage in the

production cycle; forepersons or overseers. The same system is applied in companies nowadays,

especially in the private sector.

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Human operatives are still there in the form of managers and supervisors for monitoring

workers and security guards to prevent outside interference. In addition, there is modern

technology like databases, CCTV cameras, video surveillance and access control (Wood, 2021).

The aim of the surveillance system then was to maximize profits, and it is the same today.

Background checks are run on potential employees before they are hired. They check everything,

including health records and bank statements, which breaches privacy (Wood, 2021). In this

model, the employees are not the ones being watched. Consumers are monitored using market

research, electronic computer surveillance, profiling, advertising methods and spyware.

Competitors are also under surveillance through corporate espionage, market research and

hacking (Wood, 2021). The methods of gaining data used by capitalists are illegal, but nothing

can stop them because the state backdrops them for a share of the surplus profits.

Max weber advocated for bureaucracy and organization. Bureaucracy claims to be

rational, but its imperatives are hard to change and cannot be reformed by rationality. According

to bureaucracy theory, surveillance systems organize society (Wood, 2021). They are already

being used in conjunction with satellites to monitor a large region at a time in a world where our

understanding of science is constantly evolving. These rapid advances add to the invasion of our

privacy and the limitation of our freedom, allowing those in possession of the satellites

unjustified authority over the vast majority of the population. The ability to view many

individuals at once is quite valuable. Other large-scale systems, such as museum cameras, are

becoming more technologically advanced and installed globally. According to Wood (2021),

these methods cannot be questioned, so they are referred to as iron cages and are believed to be

necessary for people to be safe.

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There are restrictions in place in approximately 80 countries that protect citizens from

how their governments use the data and film they provide. However, according to Orwell (2018),

surveillance is still a type of slavery. In his book 1984, how big brother watches everyone feels

personalized and illustrates how surveillance controls and changes almost all aspects of life,

including time and language. The laws are being amended as the times change to provide clearer

meanings. Newspeak is a language that is narrowed down so that people can only say good

things, and it is so serious that people are hired to erase words from the dictionary (Wood, 2021).

Any freedom of expression previously enjoyed is no longer legitimate when subjected to

surveillance. Anything done on camera could be used in court. In countries where citizens do not

have the right to a fair trial, a surveillance video may appear to be excessive evidence to hold

against a single person in a criminal case, solidifying Orwell's theory of thought crime.

The history of surveillance starts way back in medieval cities, where it was in the form of

architecture and humans. The architecture mentioned included walls and gates (Wood, 2021).

Some cities had both, while others had gates only. Gates were very important since they were

checkpoints or filters. They were used to determine who entered the city and who was not

allowed, punishments were administered outside them, goods were checked and taxed there, and

disease control (Wood, 2021). The gates were closed at night and reopened at dawn since

curfews were in place to prevent potential threats from attacking while people were sleeping.

Inside the cities, there was internal division whereby the rich had private security. The division is

seen in modern societies as those posh neighbourhoods or gated communities.

A phenomenon worth noting during this period is disease control. In the olden days,

diseases were considered a moral issue, and the sick people were treated as carriers, therefore,

separated from the clean population (Wood, 2021). Even though we no longer consider them a
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moral issue, separation has been practised in the form of quarantine during the COVID-19

pandemic. Back then, people were prohibited from going into the cities, which is a modern-day

lockdown. Wood (2021) states that plagued people were placed in camps where they were left to

die, but the current quarantine is for disease monitoring and curing. Forced separation is still an

issue because the patients and their families do not have a voice in this matter, yet it is their lives.

If anything, they should have options like families could choose to take care of their sick people

so that in the worst-case scenario, which is death, they will have spent the last moments with

their loved ones, thus granting them closure.

Counting is a base for surveillance, and it applies probability and statistics. Counting

comprises the census, surveys and such assessments and leads to categorization, which is the

basis of identity and identification systems (Wood, 2021). At first, it was just the regular

independent counting done by amateur scientists but later progressed to those with administrative

posts. The counting was used to produce probabilistic charts, which were the basis of

government decisions and made predictions (Wood, 2021). When street-level surveillance was

introduced, people began to take note of how distinctions between public and private spaces

became increasingly blurred, as did the privatization of previously considered public locations.

These developments clearly show the growing legality of collecting personal information, which

is a concern for many. Although most people do not have the option of travelling through many

public venues, such as government offices, customers are obliged to submit to corporate

surveillance methods. Face recognition, for example, is the least cooperative of all biometric

identification systems, requiring the least level of engagement from individuals being monitored.

Techniques for avoiding or making surveillance more difficult might be used with other

counter-surveillance strategies. The scope and sophistication of counter-surveillance tactics have

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grown considerably in recent years due to recent discoveries. Internet use has increased

dramatically, as have computer records. Civilians filming police officers is considered inverse

surveillance, a type of monitoring undertaken in the opposite direction of the first. Some well-

known examples aim to monitor police personnel to prevent police brutality and other police

misconduct. As a result, sousveillance is akin to inverse surveillance in that it entails the

recording of action by the individual who is engaged in the activity under investigation.

An alternative method of dealing with the surveillance problem is the Baudrillardian

simulation and hyperreality visual strategy. According to Baudrillard (1987), progressing beyond

anticipatory monitoring and modeling reduces the need for a Panopticon. Hid ideas are supported

by Pecora (2002) and Bogard (1996). Baudrillard, in particular, insists on how wrong Foucault

was in his subjectification theory. Baudrillard introduced simulacra instead of humans being the

subjects, where surveillance could be done on simulated subjects. This way, they will not have to

breach personal space to get information or obtain results from an experiment. A simulated

environment does not have limitations and would be a good test for policies before they are

released to the public, like vaccines. Also, the strategy would prevent the potential danger that

could occur to a test subject.

In conclusion, privacy invasion is the most urgent issue of surveillance. Most people

consider monitoring the opposite of privacy which is not necessarily the case, and that perception

leads to misunderstandings. However, surveillance constantly places people under pressure and

anxiety and does not give them freedom of choice. Not all surveillance is unethical, so it is not a

lot of effort to stick to the legal ones, those with distinct boundaries and respect for personal

space, unless necessary. That, too, should be done via the right channels. It is not okay to judge

people based on their past, which still exists on the internet. People should practice forgetting. A
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variety of approaches may be applied in surveillance by law to allow government monitoring

without infringing on the rights of US residents. Several civil rights and privacy organizations

argue that monitoring infringes on the right to privacy. Several lawsuits have been filed by

organizations and people who are opposed to specific surveillance practices. Legislators

considered the benefits and costs of electronic surveillance during the Church Committee's

investigation of domestic intelligence activities. Some of the solutions have already been

adopted, and they will give people more online freedom. Private citizens are protected by many

countries' privacy laws and constitutions against unapproved intrusions of private by the

government, companies, or other individuals; they need to be strengthened and strictly adherence

be ensured.
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References

Baudrillard, J. (1983) Simulations. New York: Semiotext(e).

Baudrillard, J. (1987) Forget Foucault! New York: Semiotext(e).

Bentham, J. (1791) Panopticon; or the Inspection-House, 2 vols, London: T. Payne

Bloustein, E. J. (2018). Individual & group privacy. Routledge.

Bogard, W. (1996) The Simulation of Surveillance, Cambridge: CUP.

Deleuze, G. (1992) ‘Postscript on the societies of control’, trans M. Joughin, October 59: 3-7

Deleuze, G. and F. Guattari (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (trans.

B. Masumi), Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Duffy, B. E., & Chan, N. K. (2019). “You never really know who’s looking”: Imagined

surveillance across social media platforms. New Media & Society, 21(1), 119-138.

Finn, R. L., Wright, D., & Friedewald, M. (2013). Seven types of privacy. In European data

protection: coming of age (pp. 3-32). Springer, Dordrecht.

Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Harmondsworth: Penguin.

George, O. (2018). 1984. Pandora's Box.

Kaschadt, K. (2002) ‘Jeremy Bentham – the Penitentiary Prison or Inspection House’, in Levin

et al.: 114-119

Latour, B. (1993) We Have Never Been Modern (trans. Porter, C.). Cambridge, Mass: Harvard

University Press.

Lyon, D. (ed.) (2002) Surveillance as Social Sorting: Privacy, Risk and Automated

Discrimination, London: Routledge.

Moore, A. D. (2011). Privacy, security, and government surveillance: Wikileaks and the new

accountability. Public Affairs Quarterly, 25(2), 141-156.

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Pecora, V.P. (2002) ‘The Culture of Surveillance’, Qualitative Sociology 25(3): 345- 358.

Post, R. C. (2000). Three concepts of privacy. Geo. LJ, 89, 2087.

Poster, M. (1996) ‘Databases as Discourse; or, Electronic Interpellations’, in Lyon, D and

Zureik, E. (eds.) Computers, Surveillance and Privacy. Minneapolis: University of

Minnesota Press, 175-192.

Wood, D. (2021). Histories of Surveillance 2: Identity, Race and Empire. Retrieved 6 April

2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrf0hOoFRk

Wood, D. (2021). History of Surveillance 1: Gates, Informers, Police. Retrieved 6 April 2022,

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaoirdXO5Bw

Wood, D. (2021). Power, Authority and Surveillance. Retrieved 6 April 2022, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVlAmM8H0OQ

Wood, D. (2021). Surveillance and Law, Ethics & Norms: Trust, Privacy & more. Retrieved 6

April 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGhv40d9TS4

Wood, D. (2021). Surveillance Theory 1: Foucault, Deleuze & more. Retrieved 6 April 2022,

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf_WlZ1u8FA

Wood, D. (2021). Surveillance Theory 2: Marx, Weber & more. Retrieved 6 April 2022, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAxarKP3AgY

Wood, D. (2021). Totalitarianism and Contemporary Societies. Retrieved 6 April 2022, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6L_66OuxEo

WSI technologies. (2016). Surveillance. Types of surveillance: cameras, telephones etc. - Word

Systems. Word Systems. Retrieved 7 April 2022, from

https://wsystems.com/surveillance-types-of-surveillance-cameras-telephones-etc/?

msclkid=4833ba9ab66c11ec861aea3006fc4ce7.
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