Summary Of A Surveillance Society By William E. Thompson

A Surveillance Society by Thompson and Hickey is about how public surveillance is everywhere, looking at everything, and is never turned off. First, the PATRIOT Act was passed by Congress shortly after 9/11, and has allowed the government to start watching people. Ever since then the U.S. has increased its use of cameras in public places. Today, just about everywhere businesses and shoppers are, there are cameras. High-tech surveillance devices are more prevalent across populated areas. Corporations, agencies and even individuals monitor social areas with surveillance. With today’s technology, cameras are able to scan images and identify people. Organizations regularly share databases, swapping personal information. Some are opposed

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.

In Brian Trent’s article, Technology and Tomorrow: A Challenge to Liberty, Trent describes how electronic surveillance has increased and how it will continue to spread amongst people. In Craig Silverman’s article, Smile, Big Brother’s watching, Silverman explains that the amount of time and surveillance that corporations conduct over employees is increasing, but having some negative effects. Both of these articles explain how electronic surveillance will increase so much, that almost everyone will be able to be seen when not in the open [monitored]. In this essay I’ll be going more in depth to describe both articles and I’ll explain whether I agree with their arguments and why.

Surveillance cameras are needed for public places in order to ensure safety of all individuals. The government, for the most part, is on Americans side and wants to ensure Americans protection. Safety in shopping centers, in traffic, and on the streets is a huge issue in America today. Despite what the majority of Americans believe, officers do care about the people in the cars and want to ensure their safety at all times. Privacy is not dead in America, people have violated the trust of others and as a result have lost complete privacy.

George Orwell’s most famous quote “Big Brother is watching you,” has continued to be a warning to the people of today. In 1984, telescreens that “broadcasted government propaganda, news, and approved entertainment” were also two-way monitors that surveilled citizen’s every move (Beale). The person or public figure behind the telescreens was known as “Big Brother” (Orwell 7). With public cameras popping up everywhere in today’s society, they are used in the same context as telescreens. Public camera’s can be used to spy on the average person’s daily routine.

In the text “A Surveillance Society,”, authors William E. Thompson and Joseph V. Hickey provided information about growing surveillance trends, new types of technology, and the impact of the surveillance. First, many surveillance trends are becoming more popular all throughout the world. Today, there are cameras everywhere you go, whether it is on the streets or in grocery stores, almost all of the time people are being watched. Since the technology of surveillance is more common, a lot of people are being photographed many times during the day. Even if it is not a photograph of your face, the cameras can photograph your license plate and link the car back to you. A main reason these surveillance trends are growing

An average American is caught on a security camera at least 75 times a day. These cameras include neighbors cameras, traffic lights, and elevators. In London, the camera to person ratio is 1:11. With cameras everywhere, people are always being watched by someone, around the world. In The Program, teens are being constantly watched for signs of depression or suicide. If they are flagged, then they are taken to The Program to have their “bad” memories erased without their knowledge of what is truly happening or their consent. Suzanne Young warns society about giving a laissez-faire company too much power in The Program. Based on Jeremy Hazlehurst ‘s article How Much Surveillance is too much? and Veronica Ma‘s article Propaganda and Censorship:

Do you ever feel like you are being watched? Well you probably are. Since 9/11 Britain has put up over 4.2 million new cameras in public places and the U.S. is trying to keep up with that number. This number will continue to grow with more advancements in technology and violent acts of terrorism. The government has experimented with technologies that will recognize patterns. It could remember your face, photo radar, and They can hide cameras in many different ways. They can hide them in glasses, computers, TV’s phones, street light movie theaters, etc... They make cameras that are so small that they could be anywhere. If you aren’t looking for them then you will never even know they’re

Imagine being under surveillance every day and every second of the day. A stranger always knowing where you are and what you are doing at all times. It is really terrifying to know someone is ALWAYS watching, yet many people brush off this fact. We live in America “the land of freedom” but are we really free? Today is the future, and we have advanced in technology, all the way from robots automatically mopping your floor to having a personal assistant that assists your every need or question you have right on your phone, but is that all they do? Or do they do more than we know? Technology today is marketed as if we need it, but in reality, they’re sold to us in order to violate our privacy and help the government spy on us.

Surveillance Society by William E. Thompson and Joseph V. Hickey is about the increase in surveillance technology, less privacy and the impact it has had on the world. Anytime or anyplace you are being watched. You could be at the mall, grocery store, school or anywhere. In Britain there are about 4.2 million cameras around and you can expect your picture to be taken more than hundreds of times each day. After the 9/11 terrorist attack our country has been trying to better our surveillance technology. Now the result of the United States increasing surveillance technology we have lost a high amount of privacy. Cameras can now pickup sound, video record, store and retrieve images. Those features are nothing compared to other surveillance devices

In Neil M. Richards Article, “The Dangers of surveillance”, Richards talks about how the public has very little knowledge about how dangerous surveillance is but whether we are informed of it or not; in today's society we are being watched closer than ever, and unless you like living in the woods and living off the grid, you're not going to get away with it. Richards describes the growing surveillance as a, “vague threat of an Orwellian dustpan… but these warnings are no longer science fiction.” In some aspects he is correct, we have televisions that can spy on us and surveillance camera on every corner with armies of workers monitoring them

The issue with our current system of government surveillance is the lack of transparency between the citizens and the nation. While government surveillance has become more accepted, as seen with the rise of memes that make fun of the topic, there is still the underlying paranoia. Hackers are able to use the same technology as the government for identity theft, this helped normalize covering up webcams. This phenomenon has become so common that Silicon Valley celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg do this as well. (1)

A Surveillance Society” By William E. Thompson and Joseph V. Hickey states a serious dramatic of an event of consequential conflicts concerns the security of every individual’s inhabiting in the general public; Moreover, it addresses how Surveillance technologies are intervening in peoples' lives and the Government has an enormous part in it. Farther more when the United States had a terrorist attack they had to enforce surveillance upon the humanity; It was called the USA Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act is an act of Congress that was signed into the law by President George W. Bush on October 26,2001 It allowed appropriate tools required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. Essentially the citizens were being spied on to ensure security for

While the U.S. has experienced an increase in surveillance in their police department and airports, Europe has seen this surveillance boom in the open streets. CCTV is a video surveillance transmit device that sends signals to set monitors, this technology is heavily used in the streets of Europe and has caused unease in the public. These cameras resemble a dystopian society similar to the world of surveillance that we see in novels like Fahrenheit 451, George Orwell’s 1984, and The Hunger Games (Gray 1). CCTV technology, meant to increase security, is dauntly similar the ‘Thought Police’ and telecoms in 1984 by George Orwell, thus pushing the technology further towards Big Brother surveillance. This has become a common term used in surveillance,

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