Surveillance and Privacy, Geography of (original) (raw)

2015, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences

Surveillance and privacy are mutually exclusive: if one increases, the other decreases. After defining these terms and their relation to each other, this article introduces key concepts in the field of surveillance studies, followed by a discussion of classical forms of surveillance and privacy invasion, namely, forms of visual surveillance. The second half of the article departs from the surveillance of individuals to new technological trends that represent new challenges to privacy concerns and the social sorting of populations through software algorithms. Surveillance Surveillance is a complex issue that has sparked a number of definitions. Because we have to start somewhere, we defer to two intellectual authorities in the field, Lyon (2007) and Marx (2012), who define surveillance in general terms outside the risk and security discourse in which it is often applied. Lyon (2007, p. 14) defines surveillance as follows: (...) the focused, systematic and routine attention to personal details for purposes of influence, management, protection or direction. Surveillance directs its attentions in the end to individuals (even though aggregated data, such as those available in the public domain, may be used to build up a background picture). It is focused. By systematic, I mean that this attention to personal details is not random, occasional or spontaneous; it is deliberate and depends on certain protocols and techniques. Marx applies a similar individually focused angle to his definition: At the most general level surveillance of human (which is often, but need not, be synonymous with human surveillance) can be defined as regard or attendance to a person or to factors presumed to be associated with a person. Marx, 2012, p. xxv While outlining various more detailed subfields of surveillance, Marx maintains a relatively strong focus on one individual or group attending to another individual or group. Thus, some common classificatory notion can be applied. In the case of surveillance social structures, for example, we can identify the surveillance agent (weather as watcher/observer/seeker/inspector/ auditor/tester), while the person about whom information is sought or reported is the surveillance subject. Marx, 2012, p. xxv, emphasis in original