surveillance and social control - 2 how monitored are we? is britain a big brother society?
TRANSCRIPT
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?