L564: Information Technology & Society

Week 13Z514: Social Aspects of IT1Privacy & SurveillancePizza Surveillance Feature

Structuration Theory by Anthony Giddens (Webster, 2006) Anthony GiddensStructuration Theorythe understanding of the relationship between individuals and social structure around themthere is a social structure - traditions, institutions, moral codes, and established ways of doing things; but it also means that these can be changed when people start to ignore them, replace them, or reproduce them differentlyE.g., Facebook3StructureAction Organisation, observation and control (Webster, 2006) The modern life is unprecedentedly socially organizedWe need to monitor people in order to arrange social lifeE.g., Elensyss patient education programs (Culnan, 2005)E.g., WalmartLabs is releasing a FB application called ShopyCat to help you find gifts for friends and families (Grove, 2011)Strawberry pop-tarts that increase sales 7 times before a hurricane (2004)Routine surveillance is necessary for effective social organization (e.g., cat catalog)4Paradox of Modern SocietyPeople choose their own life stylewe live in a Post-traditional society (Giddens, cited by Webster, 2006, p. 206)

IndividuationA person identified by a singular record, e.g., name, date of birth, residence, employment history, education, & lifestyle preferences

Individuality the exchange of industrial society ways of life by new ones, in which individuals must 'produce' their biographies themselveshaving control over ones life

5Serve individual betterParadox of Modern SocietyWhat is the paradox of modern society in terms of individuation and individuality discussed in Webster (2006)?

Cf., technologies in hotel rooms 6The Nation State and SurveillanceNation States = Information SocietiesThey must know their own members

Nation states are essential to many peoples identitiesWho belongs and who doesnt belongNation states are sustained by possession of credible defenseIncreased in ferocitytaking more civilian causalitiesindustrialization of war7From Industrial to Information WarfareAdvancement of warfare in generalPerception management (starting with Gulf War). c.f., Taken by Storm: The Media, Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Gulf War edited by Bennett, W. Lance and David L. Paletz (1994) 8SurveillanceMilitary registration, welfare benefits, and social security = the system of mass surveillanceThe panopticon: http://cartome.org/panopticon1.htm

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Surveillance or Convenience? Flickr.com cell phone tags: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ogil/298339266/ Information re:Where this picture was takenWhat camera was used How many times it was viewed.

Whats your opinion about Googles street view (Helft, 2007)?

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Corporate Surveillancethe raison dtre of managers is to act as information specialists (Taylor, 1947)Market research, e.g., Kroger cardTransactional information, e.g.,????Google was fined a record $142,000 by France for privacy violation, but it takes only 2.5 minutes for Google to generate this amount of money

Integration of corporate and government surveillanceE.g., NSAs telephone surveillanceE.g., SSN (Drlin, 2007)C.f., Consumer Privacy Guide

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear?11Facebook & Privacyhttp://www.europe-v-facebook.org/EN/en.htmlFacebook to update privacy policy, but adjusting setting is not easier [Sep 5, 2013]Facebook quietly ditches privacy setting because you probably didnt know how to use it anyway [Oct 11, 2013]12Google Privacy Policy ChangeInclude your face in Googles new adscategorical seduction (Lyon, 2001, cited in Webster, 2006)13

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What the Web Knows About You (Mitchell, 2009)Information discovered online:What has not be foundyetFull legal nameDate of birthSocial security #Current property addressPersonal phone #Business phone #Previous addresses and phone #s dating back to 1975Property tax record from 2004Assessed value of home ~1997Identifying photographsDigital image of signatureMortgage documentsEmployment historySex offender status (negative)ResumeNames of friends and coworkersParents names, address, phone

Drivers license #Vehicle registrationsBanking recordsMedical recordsDetailed demographic data from marketing databasesInsurance claims historyProperty records for land in FloridaVoter registration record/political affiliationMothers maiden nameCity and state of birth15Additional ResourcesGovernment Surveillance @ Center for Democracy & Technology: https://www.cdt.org/Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/

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