A Surveillance Society Summary

and what they are equipped to do. Some of these devices are able to scan and analyze , what they

According to “A Surveillance Society” By William E. Thompson there are camera everywhere, watching everything you do at all times. Cameras are found everywhere and are used by everyone, including the governments of the world who use it the most to track its citizens and potential threats to the safety of their nation. People are more willing to be watched in order to feel safer everywhere they go such as the supermarket to your own workplace. Governments can now look into your email, travel records, credit history and your personal life without your knowledge of them ever doing so, even your neighbors can now easily buy tools to spy on others or to protect themselves from danger; Things such as security cameras

The novella, The Concrete Jungle by Charles Stross and the novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow both present the readers with the issues and impact of surveillance upon the main characters. The surveillance exists in each separate work of fiction for different reasons, but reasons which are actually identical at their core. In The Concrete Jungle, the surveillance cameras originated out of a need for security, and related to that, feelings of fear and desire for protection. Thus, one could argue, in this novella, the need for surveillance arose out of something very organic and common, something which unites all humans: a desire for security. In society today, places of extreme importance, such as banks, government buildings, museums, office buildings and expensive homes these places all have surveillance cameras stemming from a healthy need to keep these structures safe. The Concrete Jungle represents a warping of this desire as the UK is blanketed in surveillance cameras and demonstrates a healthy need gone twisted. The Concrete Jungle and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, while distinct in style and content, both portray the struggle of the individual in maintaining identity against extremely evolved forms of surveillance.

Although the cameras keep track of people for most of their lifetime outside their homes, the surveillance is necessary to regulate citizens and prevent them from doing criminal activity. Cameras control a large part of people’s lives, with purpose “to enforce good laws... to track the government’s political enemies, to gather ammunition for blackmail, and so on,” (Volokh 9). Cameras do not watch everyday activities to observe where one needs to go, but they are there to examine the cities for thieves and vandals. While these cameras appear in almost every part of the city, and people are unaware of what information of theirs is being taken away, the government or city does not scrutinize and judge people for everything they do. Unless a recent crime has occurred and the police requires its usage to track down the suspect, only then would a footage be released for the public regarding the criminal. Otherwise, other trivial and personal information about where one goes is not revealed. Whether the information is recorded or not, it does not affect the normal citizens who live in the area who have done nothing

Many will argue that the security measurements the government are taking are going too far, so far that it is being questioned whether privacy is being invaded, Bailey Nunn investigates. T he on-going intractable nature of the “privacy vs. security” debate has, for numerous years, been unresolved. Those who believe in security over privacy intend to make a safer city, whilst others believe that their privacy is being unnecessarily invaded, nevertheless, this topic is argued globally. In many countries, the use of surveillance cameras has become very prevalent, inevitably leading to more privacy issues being raised by citizens. The use of surveillance devices has become so common that it has affected our way of living, we are no longer able

The government is always watching to ensure safety of their country, including everything and everyone in it. Camera surveillance has become an accepted and almost expected addition to modern safety and crime prevention (“Where” para 1). Many people willingly give authorization to companies like Google and Facebook to make billions selling their personal preferences, interests, and data. Canada participates with the United States and other countries in monitoring national and even global communications (“Where” para 2). Many question the usefulness of this kind of surveillance (Hier, Let, and Walby 1).However, surveillance, used non-discriminatorily, is, arguably, the key technology to preventing terrorist plots (Eijkman 1). Government

With today’s technological surveillance capabilities, our actions are observable, recordable and traceable. Surveillance is more intrusive than it has been in the past. For numerous years countries such as the United State and the United Kingdom have been actively monitoring their citizens through the use of surveillance technology. This state surveillance has been increasing with each passing year, consequently invading the citizen’s fundamental constitutional right to privacy,. This has lead to the ethical issues from the use or misuse of technology, one such ethical issue is should a government have the right to use technology to monitor its citizens without their knowledge or approval? For this reason this paper will

Many privacy issues are being raised in today’s society as a result of the growing use of surveillance. Nowadays, surveillance cameras are commonly used not only by the government, but also by regular citizens and other individual’s private firms. The way in which these devices have been used has placed an affect in our lifestyle in one way or another. Surveillance cameras are seen everywhere, in companies, schools, stores, banks, and even in private residential homes. The term “surveillance” discussed by Peter Singer in his essay “Visible man: Ethics in a World without Secrets”, is the recording of the activity and behavior of an individual in their everyday lives without their realization.

This is, to a great extent, explanation of Surveillance cameras. Early in the twenty-first century, Britain, with an estimated 4.2 million CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras, watching in government buildings, private businesses, and on street corners, became the most surveilled country on the planet. In addition, according to Mark Dice, security cameras have been installed in school bathrooms, private homes, and the built-in cameras on laptop computers have even been used by school officials to watch students when they were home without them even knowing it” (8).

“The Politics of Surveillance: Big Brother on Prozac,” explores motives behind increased CCTV surveillance and the question of why CCTV cameras have become so significant in the United Kingdom. Closed-circuit television, CCTV, is video surveillance transmit technology that sends signals to set monitors. This source cited “Crime and the City” in explaining the worldwide use of this surveillance technology. In the United Kingdom, many public and private investments were made to increase street surveillance with CCTV in the 1990s. This dynamic surveillance growth is a major regulation of society influencing public and politics life as seen in the “Crime and the City” survey analysis. Small scale CCTV projects in UK buses, parking lots, and shops

Everyday, many people are unknowing victims of domestic surveillance, a controversial topic about government watch over people. This type of surveillance is when the government keeps U.S. citizens under great scrutiny through a variety of methods to protect the citizens. The supervision causes dissent because the system may save some people, but also violates other’s privacy. Either way, domestic surveillance should still be ended because the usage of non-stop recording police body cameras, hacked webcams and microphones in devices, and increase in biometric monitoring for security.

Government surveillance has not contributed to a decrease of percentage in crimes, but has created a controversial topic instead. Online surveillance has been an invasion of privacy, because everything the users access is seen without their consent. Due to the fact the stored data is not used, government surveillance in the united states has not been very impactful. Crimes and terrorist attacks were not stopped, and the mass storage of personal data within the last year has violated privacy laws 2,776 times (Government Surveillance 722). Surveillance online is not only unsuccessful in America, but in UK, and Canada as well. Out of every 1000 security cameras, only one camera is actually used to catch a criminal (Government Surveillance 722). However, there are several solutions that can be made to allow the usage of government surveillance without the violating the rights of Americans. Some of the solutions have already taken action, and will give users more freedom online.

Possibly the technological feature creating the most controversy is surveillance cameras. What is seemingly there for public safety could also inhibit safety by exposing the public’s private life. Every move made under the hawk-like vision of the camera is observed and judged by someone sitting behind the scenes. Women risk being stalked by sexual predators, and assailants have been known to memorize the schedule of a subject in order to time the perfect attack (Stead). “Bad cops” may gain insight to a personal life that allows for the watcher to blackmail the victim. In recent studies it has been proven that an increase in surveillance cameras does not decrease the crime rate; it

In her article, “The Public Domain: Social Surveillance in Everyday Life”, Marwick discusses the phenomenon of social surveillance that has emerged alongside the increased use of social networking sites. Marwick uses ethnographic studies as evidence to support her theories about social surveillance, which build upon Foucault’s model of “capillaries of power” to distinguish her conception of social surveillance from traditional surveillance in terms of power, hierarchy, and reciprocity. She argues that unlike traditional surveillance, the surveillance that takes place on social networking sites provides its users with a more fluid sense of power pertaining to gathering information on others. This flow of power creates an imbalance between the participating individuals, transforming what is traditionally a structurally hierarchical act into one that is socially hierarchical. Participating individuals both

In the modern world there have been a lot of technological advances within societies. Technology concerns about security and surveillance has changed the thoughts of people. This surveillance technology consist of spying video cameras, CCTV security and surveillance cameras, surveillance electronic communications, face recognition and many others. Some people think this technology is okay while others carry a different view.  These people feel that it is an invasion of privacy, especially when it is in a public place. Use of surveillance technology are impinging on our privacy as they are affecting student moral, privacy at workplace, behavior of people, life