Here is one more exciting post about the surveillance theme. Hope you like it and leave your comments bellow. Sorry for the long text, but it was necessary due to the social nature of the article. Hope you enjoy!
In my first publication
about this subject, I wrote about the importance of selecting what we publish
on our social networking sites in order to protect our personal data from
theft. Personal security was emphasized following a dictionary definition of the
term surveillance.
Now, in this second and
final publication about the same issue, I will then discuss the academic
definition for surveillance, definition that I now shall repeat. David Lyon,
an academic writer, says that surveillance is “Watching and recording others’
activity as a means of monitoring and supervising them” (Lyon, 2002). Or yet,
“Focusing and systematic attention to personal details for the purpose of
influence, management, care, control or regulation.” (Lyon, 2002: p. 1-5).
Even
though it seems to be the same definition as it is in the dictionary, which I
profoundly explored in the previous article, it is not the same; there is a
crucial element of difference. The academic definition that I will pass on to
describe means much more than a “close observation” as the dictionary states.
The academic definition speaks about constant surveillance, monitoring
something in a systematic manner. It is almost as if dissecting a human or
animal body. It is something beyond social networking, something that we are
all submitting to in our daily lives, no matter where we go.
In
London, United Kingdom, there is a camera monitoring system that works 24/7.
This system is known as Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and according to
official sources there is one camera for every 14 inhabitants. Every step or
action we make is filmed and controlled by an operation system that unites all
the cameras in a switcher room, watching all over London.
Applying
this to the virtual territory, we see that the situation is similar to when we
share personal information to others without noticing it. A clear example is
those public entities where we leave our ID numbers and many other very
personal data. The same happens when we type in or share personal info on
networking websites, dating websites, and so on. Even when we authorize the use
of our data to access some web content. Or when we authorize an online
contract, which will give us access to a specific portal. In this sense, there
is a monitoring system created by Facebook that allows them to use our info to let
us access games or even application, even if those are our most basic data.
From
the online advertising point of view, there are huge opportunities with this
kind of information sharing. There are specialist advertisers who use key words
typed on Google to tailor pop up adverts to users (Which I personally think
that it is too annoying and unnecessary). Furthermore, there are those advanced
systems that sweep your Internet preferences to use that data for their own
companies benefit. An example of this is universities that use their data
system to register and capture students’ classification awards to promote them
to prospect students.
In
parallel to this and coming back to the real world, we think of health check
records, official records, criminal check records, bankcards, store loyalty
cards and any other personal info that we give away. Recently I was told that
even with that entry cards that we take when we check in to hotels around the
world carry very important data about us. Those data are things like passport
number, ID number and so on. When we check out, this data stays on the card,
which is kept inside a drawer until the next guest comes in. Only then the info
is wiped out from the card, but it remains there on their computer records. In
other words, we are never free from this constant surveillance in anywhere we
go.
To wrap this all up, I want
to stress that this subject is too extensive and there is much more to it that
I do not have space to cover it all here. But, it is also important to say that
all the issues I did not mention are equally crucial. Anyway, my aim here is
not and it never was to alarm anyone to this “lack of security” we have out
there. I want to make clear that for everything there are positive and negative
sides, therefore I only present the facts as they are to the own judgement of each
of us. For this reason, when I put “lack of security” in inverted comma was to
say that there is also a positive aspect in all of this, from where companies
and institutions take advantage. So, from all of this we have to think: What am
I doing with my personal data? To whom and Why am I passing this information?
Do I need to do this for this purpose or not? We have to be conscious of our
acts and that those acts are most important than anything else.
Well, I this I wrote to much for today so see you next time!
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