Privacy In Citizenfour

Almost everything someone does in today’s society is under surveillance. It does not matter if you are surfing the web, going to the store, or even driving a car; it is almost always under surveillance. While Michel Foucault does not specifically talk about modern surveillance technology in Discipline & Punish (1977), much of the primitive technology that he does talk about is directly related with today’s surveillance technology. Michel Foucault believes that societal surveillance began to take effect during the 1600’s to control the masses. Many modern surveillance technologies reflect Foucault’s ideas helping to categorize, differentiate, hierarchize, and exclude people from the masses.

Foucault once stated, “Our society is one not of spectacle, but of surveillance; under the surface of images, one invests” (301). By this, he means that our society is full of constant supervision that is not easily seen nor displayed. In his essay, Panopticism, Foucault goes into detail about the different disciplinary societies and how surveillance has become a big part of our lives today. He explains how the disciplinary mechanisms have dramatically changed in comparison to the middle ages. Foucault analyzes in particular the Panopticon, which was a blueprint of a disciplinary institution. The idea of this institution was for inmates to be seen but not to see. As Foucault put it, “he is the object of information, never a subject in

Two articles from NewsEla give information about Edward Snowden and how he revealed how the American democracy is disappearing like our privacy. He exposed the NSA by informing the population that they were collecting Americans’ phone records. Nevertheless, even though he is going to face the consequences of his actions, he had a justified reason for doing what he did. First of all, it was revealed that the information collected by the NSA was used against citizens who were participating in low-key protests. Secondly, the government ignored terrorist information and focused on the information of the innocent. In an article by Mark Weisbrot for NewsEla it states, “However there is a mountain of evidence that this massive data-gathering is, in fact, being used against citizens who are involved in activities that are protected by our Constitution….As a result, they seem to have ignored the intelligence that was literally handed to them about the terrorists who bombed the Boston Marathon in April.” This indicates that the government has been eavesdropping into our private

According to Foucault, power does not belong to the individual, but to the system, to the institution. In his essay on Discipline and Punish, Foucault presents his idea of the panopticon mechanism, a mechanism in which visibility is a trap. With little importance over the actual individual in the role of the observer or of the observed, the object of the system is total power over the observed. Due to the unique shape of the panopticon, there are no corners and thus no blind spots for the observed to hide in. The private space is replaced by the public one. Furthermore, as final evidence of total control, the observed never knows for sure if they are being watched or not, as they can’t see the observer (Foucault 200-205). Foucault further argues that this system is followed by any government institution, placing the society under permanent observation. Individuals might try to evade the system, but achieving liberation and freedom is not something that anyone could do. Dostoevsky’s famous novel, Crime and

Ever since the American public was made aware of the United States government’s surveillance policies, it has been a hotly debated issue across the nation. In 2013, it was revealed that the NSA had, for some time, been collecting data on American citizens, in terms of everything from their Internet history to their phone records. When the story broke, it was a huge talking point, not only across the country, but also throughout the world. The man who introduced Americans to this idea was Edward Snowden.

Fear is inevitably tied to the common saying “I am watching you”. When one’s actions are constantly monitored and privacy being relentlessly invaded, the individual soon will possess a sort of fear. In the novel Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, the government uses surveillance as a tool for exploiting the privacy of the people which then engages their fear.

In this essay I speak about the historical documentary Citizenfour , This document describes or explains the meeting of Edward Snowden who is an American technology consultant , informer and former employee of the CIA and NSA ; With one journalists who helped reveal to the world the mayor massive spying known. Creating a film where is the information not the music that makes us realize that we are not watching science fiction. Referring to the issue of security the NSA, the CIA and GCHQ we can conclude that not all people agree with this series of policies either for convenience or lack privacy. This is because these policies "violate " our privacy. So it is to be aware or security issues.

Privacy has endured throughout human history as the pillar upon which our authentic nature rests. Yet, in an age darkened by the looming shadow of terrorism, another force threatens to dominate the skyline and obscure the light of liberty behind promises of safety and security: government surveillance. As an employee of the NSA, Edward Snowden broke his vow of secrecy to inform the public of our government’s furtive surveillance acts, but does this render him traitorous? To answer this, we must first ask ourselves, traitorous to whom? When the very institution established to protect our fundamental liberties intrudes on our privacy from behind a veil of secrecy, should such informed individuals resign from judicious autonomy and

     The Panopticon, a prison described by Foucault, “is a machine for dissociating the see/being seen dyad: in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever seeing” (321, Foucault). This literally means that in the formation of the panopticon those who are being seen can not see one another and the one who sees everything can never be seen. That is the most important tool of the panopticon. Foucault makes this assumption about today’s society by saying that we are always being watched whether we know it or not. One always keeps an eye over their shoulder as a

In Michael Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish”, the late eighteen century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham's model of Panopticon was illustrated as a metaphor for the contemporary technologies of mass surveillance.

A Panopticon is a cylindrical prison where all prisoners’ cells face a central watchtower with the intention of instilling the idea of constant surveillance in prisoners. Panopticism stems from the same model which refers to the idea of constant surveillance in any setting especially in today’s world of technological pervasiveness. The panopticon represents the double edged sword that is present to society as authorities want to exert more control on the individuals. Between giving up privacy for safety and private lives that endanger all, the need for regulation of behavior gets stuck in the middle of it all. The movie Citizen Four (Poitras, 2014) highlights that any shred of privacy that we thought we had has been lost in the “shadowy labyrinths

Over the past few years, there has been an increased amount of surveillance in world cities. Due to an increased threat of terrorism, many governments have increased the amount of security they use and the limitations on human freedom. By using different types of technologies, government organizations can “listen in on cell phone calls, use voice recognition to scan mobile networks, read emails and text messages, censor web pages, track a citizen’s every movement using GPS, and can even change email contents while en route to a recipient” (Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2014). They have the ability to secretly turn on webcams built into personal laptops and microphones in cell phones not being used, and can do so at any time without the user knowing. Governments everywhere are using all of this information, filtering it and organizing it on such a large scale, that it can be used to spy on almost every person in a world city, and even an entire country. The way governments watch their citizens operates like Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon prison. A Panopticon is a prison in which the guard can view all the inmates in their cells without being seen themselves (Sage Publications, 2012). This means that inmates would be watched at all times. However, Bentham recognized that constant surveillance was not possible, and the design would make the inmates unsure or whether he or she was being watched. This led the prisoners to believe that they were always being watched, which could

When the National Security Agency chose to place wire taps into Robert Dean’s home illegally, they exemplified Foucault’s panoptic model. The wire taps used by the National Security Agency are prime examples of Foucault’s “instrument of permanent, exhaustive, omnipresent surveillance” (386). Furthermore, by the National Security Agency exercising the use of these instruments they are “capable of making all visible, as long as it could itself remain invisible” (386-387). This illegal surveillance is just one way they exercise Foucault’s Panopticon. Moreover, when the National Security Agency continues to punish Dean by convicting him of the murder of Hammersley they are exercising Foucault’s Panopticon by ‘[undermining] the limits that are traced around the law” (394). Enemy of the State excels at showing how the government can manipulate the law to suit their needs.

In today’s society, every aspect of a person’s life is constantly under surveillance. People are always watching and documenting someone’s every move, whether they are driving to the grocery store, watching a movie in their house, or making a phone call on their cell phone. Modern technology makes it easy to surveil people and track their movements. Therefore, making it very easy to place people into different categories based on what they do in their everyday lives. Michel Foucault believes that surveillance “compares, differentiates, hierarchizes, homogenizes, [and] excludes” people. (Foucault, 1977, p. 183) Surveillance is being used to categorize people who do not fit society’s norm. This happens because the information is being retained and stored, which it then helps place different people into different categories.

Surveillance was used by the sovereign as a form of power “that it was more efficient and profitable in terms of the economy of power to place people under surveillance than to subject them to some exemplary penalty” (Foucault, 1977, p. 38). For Foucault individuals had more freedom in the past even though people were tortured in comparison to today, he explains to us that in the past people knew that if they committed a serious crime torture would ensue. In the prison system, prisoners are being watched at all times, everything is regulated and documentations are filled out on regular and irregular behaviour. In order to watch inmates at all times, Bentham’s architectural structure called the panoptican was used in prisons. This enabled officers to watch inmates without them knowing. All cells could not be watched at the same time but inmates did not know if they were bring observed or not so they behaved as if they were being observed. Prisoners are confined in their cells with no engagement with other inmates. Watchmen can see in but prisoners cannot see out. They are in total confinement. (Spierenburg,