Surveillance and Social Control - 2

How monitored are we?

Is Britain a ‘Big Brother’ society?

1) The collection of information (“dataveillance”)

2) The rise of CCTV (closed circuit television)- The streets of Paris- The case of Las Vegas

3) The politics of surveillance - Official story / unofficial stories

The Collection of InformationDavid LyonThe “Surveillance Society”

a) Visual surveillance

b) Dataveillance

Sophisticated electronic data collection systems

1) Specific individuals

2) Types of individuals / groups

3) Whole population

Constant data collection

More data collated every day

Databases contain e.g. - Financial situation- Health situation- Use of state benefits- Consumer preferences- Education record- Criminal record

The Collection of InformationGovernment:

- Criminal data

- Life data

- Voting data

- Social welfare data

The paradoxes of “democracy”

1) Government knowledge of individual grows

2) After September 11th – more surveillance to protect “freedom”

The Collection of InformationBusiness corporations

- Consumer preferences

- Marketing:

reducing uncertainty

- Selling your data

- data as commodity

Government data collection systemsseparate from

Business data collection systems

Now: Blurring of boundaries

- Government use ofbusiness datae.g. mobile phone records

- Electronic trails

The Rise of CCTV

(Closed Circuit Television)

Britain the most visually monitored society in Western world

2000: 1.3 million cameras

Increasing at 20% per year

Average person per day:

- 300 cameras

- 30 CCTV networks

- Public systems

- Private systems

Average driver on motorway:

- image taken every 4 minutes

CCTV - historical backgroundChanges in Paris

Medieval city

-Visually inaccessible to authorities

Modern city

- Highly visually accessible to authorities

- From mid-19th century, total reconstruction of streets

What CCTV can do1. Capture car number-plates

2. Capture faces

3. Store and compare

4. Size & secrecy

Las Vegas casinos

1) Streets outside - CCTV

2) CCTV everywhere inside

- Zoom mechanisms

- Infra-red, heat-seeking motion mechanisms

3) Electronic communications surveillance

The Politics of SurveillanceOfficial story:

- reduces crime

- enhances public safety

- discourages creation of new “criminals”

- 75% of public in favour

Unofficial story:

Norris and Armstrong

City of Hull, UK

1) 900 targeted surveillances - 12 arrests

2) Operators’ biases: youths, black people, drunks, beggars

3) Shifts crime to other areas

Zygmunt Bauman‘Consumers’ &

‘failed consumers’

a) Streets and & shopping malls kept ‘pure’

b) Public spaces controlled by private business interests

c) Consumerism: stimulate aspirations of all

d) Surveillance: control aspirations of poor

“Gated communities”- Private communities for the rich- Fences and electronic surveillance

systems

USA, South Africa, Brazil- Great divides between rich and

poor- Rich frightened of theft and

violence- Social fabric torn apart / CCTV as

“solution”- Crime further concentrated in poor

areas

Coming to Britain soon …

ISSUES TO CONSIDER1) Surveillance necessary and socially

beneficial?

OR Surveillance intrusive and a violation of human rights?

BALANCE?

2) How much privacy do you really have?

Has the “Big Brother” society come to be a reality?

3) Are the poor more targeted than the rich? Is that a problem? Democracy?