Roger Clarke's Web-Site © Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd,  1995-2024
HOME	eBusiness	Information Infrastructure	Dataveillance & Privacy	Identity Matters	Other Topics
What's New		Waltzing Matilda	Advanced Site-Search

Research on Surveillance Societies

Sketch of 17 July 2022

Roger Clarke

© Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 2022

This document is at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/ROSS.html

A related set of Working Notes is at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/FSSS.html

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Surveillance, Surveillance Society, Surveillance Technologies
• 3. Relevant Research Techniques
• 4. Significance Beyond Surveillance
• 5. Conclusions
• Resource List
• Reference List

1. Introduction

In early July 2022, Prof. Niederman approached me in relation to a course he was running on 'future studies', which is both about how to study the future and what the future might bring. He invited me to video record an interview with him about the surveillance society -- how I study this, what general conclusions I've come to, and how individuals might react whether or not they buy into your conclusions.

In order to prepare for the interview, I needed to check back over the research I've done in relation to the surveillance society, extract information about study methods, and reflect on key findings and their impact. I started out by identifying my main publications and unpublished manuscripts relevant to the topic, then put together these Notes.

2. Surveillance, Surveillance Society, Surveillance Technologies

Surveillance is usefully defined as the systematic investigation or monitoring of the actions or communications of one or more persons. Techniques have been developed over millennia, and technologies over centuries. Investment by repressive regimes like that of Stalin either side of WWII, and applied in East Germany until about 1990, and by the PRC, and by the USA on an ongoing basis, has seen the accumulation of technologies, and increased effectiveness and intrusiveness. Adoption has extended far beyond spying, counter-spying and policing agencies, with widespread use by other government agencies, by corporations, and by individuals. Throughout the 20th century, a dystopian literature painted a bleak picture of the impacts of surveillance technologies. Of particular significance were Zamyatin's 'We' (1922), Orwell's '1984' (1948), Brunner's 'The Shockwave Rider' (1975) and Gibson's 'Neuromancer' (1984).

The term 'surveillance society' emerged during the closing years of the 20th century (Marx 1985, Flaherty 1988, Weingarten 1988, Gandy 1989, Lyon 1994, Lyon 2001). The sentiments are well summed-up by the speculation that "Technology could be offering the tools for building a surveillance society in which everything people do and are as human beings is an open book to those who assert some 'right' to monitor them" (Weingarten 1988, p.747).

My activities in the area of surveillance society arose from my early work on privacy impacts of computing. In 1972-74, I ran a Special Interest Group of the Australian Computer Society, whose purpose was to ensure that the proposed privacy legislation in that State would not unreasonably constrain the still-emergent industry that was applying computing to the data-processing needs of large government agencies and business enterprises. Durng 1976-77, I conducted research for the NSW Government's Privacy Committee (subsequently Commission), including the lead-authoring of one of the world's first set of privacy guidelines for personal data systems (NSWPC 1977). I then resumed my career as a systems analyst, later IT consultant and researcher, but have revisited the area sporadically on many occasions during the intervening 45 years.

Given my professional and disciplinary backround (in Business Information Systems), and the origins of my interest in the surveillance society, I have naturally framed my work in the area around the notion of data as a tool, and IT as an intervention into social processes.

Categories of surveillance technology are familiar to us all, and yet not well-enough understood.

Physical, Spatial, Visual, Aural, all with Tech Augmentation

Electronic Communications, from the telegraph, telephone, data networks, the Internet

Data - "the systematic monitoring of people's actions or communications through the application of information technology"

Digital Persona, Location and Tracking, imposed anklets and embedded chips

Experiential

Auto - by the self, of the self - diary-blogging, self-exposure on Facebook, FitBit
In the Panopticon, be it of Bentham (1791) or Foucault (1977), the watched are never sure when the watcher's gaze is focussed on them, leading to a self-disciplinary 'chilling effect' whereby intentional acts by one party have a strong deterrent effect on important, positive behaviours of some other party (Schauer 1978, Penney 2016).

Auto-Physical - vlogging, mobile-device-carriage, voluntary chip-insertion

Omni / Supra - multi-stream, coordinated

Sous

3. Relevant Research Techniques

Business Case

Risk Assessment

Impact Assessment

Case Study

Futurism / Scenario Analysis

4. Significance Beyond Surveillance

Researcher Perspective

Stakeholders

Participants / Users

Non-Participants / Usees

Beyond Single-Perspective, System-Sponsor Research

Win-Win / Dual

Win-Win-Win / Multi-Perspective / Networked Industry Sectors

Social

Environmental

5. Conclusions

TEXT

Resource List

The following are my publications, plus some unpublished manuscripts, relevant to the topic 'surveillance society', and the way in which such a topic can be studied.

Retrospectives on Surveillance Tech esp. Dataveillance Tech

Clarke R. (2021) 'A Dataveillance Retrospective: 1986-2021' Panel Notes on 'Geolocationand Dataveillance, Sousveillance and Uberveillance', AAG GeoethicsSeries Webinar, American Association of Geographers, 11 August 2021, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/DV21.html, and slide-set, andPanel video

Clarke R. (2020) 'Notes for an Interview on Dataveillance'December 2020, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/DV20.html

Clarke R. (2020) 'Auto-Surveillance' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd,December 2020, at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/AutoSurv.html

Clarke R. (2014) 'From Dataveillance to Ueberveillance' Interview in Michael K. & Michael M.G. (eds.) 'Uberveillance and the Social Implications of Microchip Implants: Emerging Technologies', IGI Global, 2014, pp. 18-31, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/DV13.html

Clarke R. (2014) 'Promise Unfulfilled: The Digital Persona Concept, Two Decades Later' Information Technology & People 27,2 (Jun 2014) 182-207, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/ID/DP12.html

Relevant Research Techniques (mostly embedded, not the article's focus)

Clarke R. (2022) 'Responsible Application of Artificial Intelligence to Surveillance: What Prospects?' Information Polity 27, 2 (Jun 2022) 175-191, Special Issue on 'Questioning Modern Surveillance Technologies', PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/AIP-S.html

Clarke R. (2022) 'Evaluating the Impact of Digital Interventions into Social Systems: How to Balance Stakeholder Interests' Presentation on Multi-Stakeholder Risk Assessment (MSRA), to the International Digital Security Forum (IDSF22), Vienna, 1 June 2022, Stream on 'Understanding the Challenges of Digital Societies', at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/MSRA-VIE.html

Clarke R., Davison R.M. & Jia W. (2020) 'Researcher Perspective in the IS Discipline: An Empirical Study of Articles in the Basket of 8 Journals' Information Technology & People 33, 6 (October 2020) 1515-1541, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/RPBo8.html

Clarke R. & Davison R.D. (2020) 'Through Whose Eyes? The Critical Concept of Researcher Perspective' J. Assoc. Infor. Syst. 21, 2 (March-April 2020) 483-501, PrePrint at http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/SOS/RP.html

Clarke R. (2022) 'Research Opportunities in the Regulatory Aspects of Electronic Markets' Electronic Markets 32, 1 (Jan-Mar 2022) 179-200, PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/EC/RAEM.html esp.

s.3 A Framework for Regulatory Research in Electronic Markets
http://rogerclarke.com/EC/RAEM.html#F and

s.5 The Framework Applied to Platforms
http://rogerclarke.com/EC/RAEM.html#P

Clarke R. (2022) 'Proposal to a Santa Barbara event for a Research Program on 'Scenario Analysis for Locational Information Futures', 3 January 2022, at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/SALT-22.html
(Accepted, but had to withdraw due to COVID travel-challenges)

Clarke R. (2021) 'A Simulation Model for COVID-19 Public Health Management: Design and Preliminary Evaluation' Proc. Bled eConference, 27-30 June 2021, PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/EC/CVMP.html

Clarke R. (2021) 'A Comprehensive Framework for Regulatory Regimes as a Basis for Effective Privacy Protection' Proc. 14th Computers, Privacy and Data Protection Conference (CPDP'21), Brussels, 27-29 January 2021, PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/RMPP.html

Clarke R. (2020) 'The Visualisation of Virtual Surveillance: How do we Extend Ourselves Beyond the Visual Metaphor?' Notes for a Panel Session discussing the video-documentary 'Stare into the lights, my pretties', at IEEE ISTAS'20, 15 November 2020, at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/VVS.html

Clarke R. (2019) 'Principles and Business Processes for Responsible AI' Computer Law & Security Review 35, 4 (2019) 410-422, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/AIP.html

esp. s.3 Risk Assessment and Management
http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/AIP.html#RARM

Clarke R. (2019) 'Risks Inherent in the Digital Surveillance Economy: A Research Agenda' Journal of Information Technology 34,1 (Mar 2019) 59-80, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/DSE.html

[ A more grounded approach to Zuboff's 'surveillance capitalism' ]

esp. s.6.1 Research into Alternative Futures, at http://rogerclarke.com/EC/DSE.html#RAF

Clarke R. (2017) 'An Instrumentalist's View of Koops et al.'s Typology of Privacy' Notes in Preparation for a Panel Session at CPDP on 27 January 2017 on Koops' et al. (2016)'s 'Types of Privacy', at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/PTyp-1701.html

Clarke R. (2016) 'Big Data Prophylactics' Chapter 1 in Lehmann A., Whitehouse D., Fischer-H[[Ydieresis]]bner S., Fritsch L. & Raab C. (eds.) 'Privacy and Identity Management. Facing up to Next Steps' Springer, 2017, pp. 3-14, (Keynote at the IFIP Summer School on Privacy and Identity Management, Karlstad, Sweden, 22 August 2016), PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/BDP.html

Clarke R. (2016) 'Privacy Impact Assessments as a Control Mechanism for Australian National Security Initiatives' Computer Law & Security Review 32, 3 (May-June 2016) 403-418, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/IANS.html

Clarke R. (2016) 'Big Data, Big Risks' Information Systems Journal 26, 1 (January 2016) 77-90, PrPrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/BDBR.html

Clarke R. (2016) 'A Framework for Analysing Technology's Negative and Positive Impacts on Freedom and Privacy' Datenschutz und Datensicherheit 40, 1 (January 2016) 79-83, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/Biel15-DuD.html

Clarke R. (2015) 'Quasi-Empirical Scenario Analysis and Its Application to Big Data Quality' Proc. 28th Bled eConference, Slovenia, 7-10 June 2015, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/BDSA.html

Clarke R. (2014) 'Surveillance, Resilience and Democracy' Panelist's Comments at the Joint Final Event of the EU IRISS, RESPECT and SURVEILLE Projects, Brussels, 30 October 2014, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/SRD14.html

esp. s.3 ... A Body of [Meta-]Principles [for Evaluation]
http://rogerclarke.com/DV/SRD14.html#Do

Clarke R. (2014) 'Privacy and Social Media: An Analytical Framework' Journal of Law, Information and Science 23,1 (April 2014) 1-23, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/SMTD.html

Clarke R. (2014) 'Approaches to Impact Assessment' Notes for a Panel Presentation at CPDP'14, Brussels, 22 January 2014, on the topic of 'Legal and Non-Legal Technology Impact Assessments', at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/IA-1401.html#TA

Clarke R. (2012) 'The Challenging World of Privacy Advocacy' IEEE Technology & Society 31, 4 (Winter 2012) 29-31, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/PAO-12.html

Clarke R. (2012) 'A Framework for Surveillance Analysis' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, rev. February 2012, at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/FSA.html

Clarke R. & Wigan M.R. (2011) 'You Are Where You've Been: The Privacy Implications of Location and Tracking Technologies' Journal of Location Based Services 5, 3-4 (December 2011) 138-155, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/YAWYB-CWP.html

Clarke R. (2009) 'Surveillance in Speculative Fiction: Have Our Artists Been Sufficiently Imaginative?' Notes for a Keynote at the Access & Privacy Workshop in Toronto on 27 October 2009, and a seminar at Cambridge Computer Laboratory on 2 November 2009, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/SSF-0910.html

Clarke R. (2009) 'Privacy Impact Assessment: Its Origins and Development' Computer Law & Security Review 25, 2 (April 2009) 123-135, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/PIAHist-08.html

Clarke R. (2008) 'Business Cases for Privacy-Enhancing Technologies' Chapter 7 in Subramanian R. (Ed.) 'Computer Security, Privacy and Politics: Current Issues, Challenges and Solutions' IDEA Group, 2008, pp. 135-155, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/PETsBusCase.html

esp. s.5 Business Cases for PETs
http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/PETsBusCase.html#BC

Clarke R. (2006) 'Make Privacy a Strategic Factor - The Why and the How' Cutter IT Journal 19, 11 (October 2006), PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/APBD-0609.html

Clarke R. (2003) 'Scenario-Based Research' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 26 June 2003, at http://www.xamax.com.au/Res/Scenarios.html

Clarke R. (2001) 'Person-Location and Person-Tracking: Technologies, Risks and Policy Implications' Information Technology & People 14, 2 (Summer 2001) 206-231, PrePrint at lhttp://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/PLT.html

Clarke R. (2001) 'If e-Business is Different, Then So is Research in e-Business' Invited plenary paper for the IFIP TC8 Working Conference on E-Commerce/E-Business, Salzburg, 22-23 June 2001, in Andersen K.V. et al. (eds.) 'Seeking Success in E-Business' Springer, New York, 2003, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/EC/EBR0106.html

Clarke R. (1997) 'Instrumentalist Futurism: A Tool for Examining I.T. Impacts and Implications' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 6 October 1997, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/InstFut.html

Clarke R. (1997) 'Chip-Based ID: Promise and Peril' Invited Address to a Workshop on 'Identity cards, with or without microprocessors: Efficiency versus confidentiality', at the International Conference on Privacy, Montreal, 23-26 September 1997, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/IDCards97.html

Clarke R. & Stevens K. (1997) 'Evaluation Or Justification? The Application Of Cost/Benefit Analysis To Computer Matching Schemes' Proc. ECIS'97, Cork, Ireland, 19-21 June 1997, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/ECIS97.html

Clarke R. (1995) 'Computer Matching by Government Agencies: The Failure of Cost/Benefit Analysis as a Control Mechanism' Information Infrastructure & Policy 4,1 (1995) 29-65, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/MatchCBA.html

Clarke R. (1994b) 'Human Identification in Information Systems: Management Challenges and Public Policy Issues' Information Technology & People 7,4 (December 1994) 6-37, PrePrint at ../DV/HumanID.htmlhttp://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/HumanID.html

Clarke R. (1994) 'Human Identification in Information Systems: Management Challenges and Public Policy Issues' Information Technology & People 7,4 (December 1994) 6-37, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/HumanID.html

Clarke R. (1994) 'Information Technology: Weapon of Authoritarianism or Tool of Democracy?' Proc. IFIP World Congress, Hamburg, September 1994, PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/PaperAuthism.html

Clarke R. (1994) 'The Digital Persona and Its Application to Data Surveillance' The Information Society 10,2 (June 1994), PrePrint at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/DigPersona.html

Clarke R. (1994) 'The Eras of Dataveillance' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 23 March 1994, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/NotesDVEras.html

Clarke R. (1993) 'A 'Future Trace' on Dataveillance: Trends in the Anti-Utopia / Science Fiction Genre' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, March 1993, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/DV/NotesAntiUtopia.html

Clarke R. (1992) 'A.N.U. Admin. Computing: Status Report of 10 September 2001' Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 10 September 1992, Paper for the A.N.U. Administrative Computing Working Party, at http://www.rogerclarke.com/SOS/UniAdmin2001.html

Clarke R. (1988) 'Information Technology and Dataveillance' Commun ACM 31,5 (May 1988) 498-512, PrePrint at http://rogerclarke.com/DV/CACM88.html

Clarke R. (1986) 'Information Technology and 'Dataveillance' Proc. Symp. on Comp. & Social Responsibility, Macquarie Uni. Dept of Comp. Sci., September 1986

Appendix: A Framework for Surveillance Analysis

The following is extracted from an unpublished working paper that has been utilised in multiple studies and presentations. It comprises Dimensions of a Surveillance Activity and Forms of Surveillance.

For a textual version, see DV/AIP-S.html#S

1. Dimensions of a Surveillance Activity

The public and political acceptability, the legality, and the effectiveness of a particular instance of surveillance differ greatly depending on the design choices that it evidences. An approach to developing an ethical framework for surveillance is in Michael, McNamee & Michael (2006).

Exhibit 3A: Dimensions of a Surveillance Activity - Overview

1. Of What?
2. For Whom?
3. By Whom?
4. Why?
5. How?
6. Where?
7. When?

Exhibit 3B: Dimensions of a Surveillance Activity - Detail

(1) Of What?

That which is subjected to surveillance may be:

• a specified space
• a specified object
• a specified group of objects
• a specified person
• a specified group of people

(2) For Whom?

The beneficiaries of surveillance may be:

• the person who is the subject of the surveillance
• a person or organisation with a direct relationship with the subject of the surveillance (e.g. the person's employer)
• another party with an interest in the behaviour of the subject

Relevant categories of organisations include associations of persons, corporations, associations of corporations, and government agencies, which can be usefull further categorised into administrative, law enforcement and national security agencies.

(3) By Whom?

The surveillance may be conducted by:

• the person who is the subject of the surveillance ('auto-surveillance')
• a person or organisation with a direct relationship with the subject of the surveillance (e.g. the person's employer)
• another party with an interest in the behaviour of the subject
• a third party that is in some sense acting as an agent on behalf of one of the above

(4) Why?

Two broad categories of purposes can be distinguished:

• mass surveillance: surveillance whose purpose is to detect instances and/or to influence many individual instances at once (surveillance of a group and of space)
• object or personal surveillance: surveillance whose purpose is to monitor and/or influence individual instances (surveillance of an individual person, and of an object)

The motivation for the surveillance may be:

• to assist with safety or health, of the subject of surveillance (personal surveillance) or more generally (mass surveillance)
• to detect behaviour that conforms or does not conform with some norm (mass surveillance)
• to collect information or evidence relating to behaviour that conforms or does not conform with some norm (both personal and mass surveillance)
• to encourage conformant behaviour and/or deter non-conformant behaviour (both personal and mass surveillance)

(5) How?

Using one or more of the forms defined in Exhibit 2A.

(6) Where?

The locus of the surveillance may be defined:

• in a physical space
• in a virtual space
  A common form of virtual space is that enabled by electronic communication networks. Another is the web of ideas inherent in published text, uttered words and recorded behaviour

(7) When?

The timeframe in which surveillance is conducted may be:

• ephemeral
• across a single span of time
• across recurrent spans (such as a particular span within each 24-hour cycle)
• scattered across time (e.g. triggered by particular conditions detected in published text, uttered words and recorded behaviour)

The intensity with which surveillance is conducted may be:

• once-only
• repeated
• continual
• continuous

The persistence of consequences of surveillance may be:

• ephemeral, because it is limited to observation
• short-to-medium term, because it is recorded
• long-term or permanent, because it is archived

The time-period within which surveillance is applied may be:

• the present, through real-time use
• the past, through retrospective use
• the future, through predictive use

2. Forms of Surveillance

The section provides structured lists of the forms of surveillance and supporting technologies. All forms of surveillance interfere with behavioural privacy, and particular forms interfere with communications privacy, data privacy, and privacy of the physical person.

Exhibit 2A: Forms of Surveillance - Overview

• Physical Surveillance
  Using visual and aural means to monitor sights and sounds
• Communications Surveillance
  Using any appropriate means to monitor messages
• Data Surveillance
  Using the content of personal data systems
• Location and Tracking Surveillance
  Focussing on data that discloses an individual's location in some space
• Body Surveillance ['+berveillance' Type 1]
  Focussing on direct measurement of some aspect of a person
• Omnipresent and/or Omniscient Surveillance ['+berveillance' Type 2]
  Integrated application of multiple forms of surveillance

Exhibit 2B: Forms of Surveillance - Detail

PHYSICAL SURVEILLANCE

• Unaided Observation
  Watching (visual surveillance) and Listening (aural surveillance), including Eavesdropping and Tale-Telling by parties to a conversation
  Human eyes and ears
  Limited in Space
  Limited in Time
  Limited by Human Energy and Attention-Span
  Includes observation, stake-out, pursuit, stallking
• Enhanced Observation
  Aids for human eyes and ears, i.e.
  Remote or enhanced observation of image, sound, video, video with sound, including outside the humanly-perceptible spectra
  telescopes, directional microphones, infra-red cameras
  trip-wires as triggers
  Less limited in Space
  Limited in Time
• Recording
  Aids for human eyes and ears, i.e.
  recording of image, sound, video, video with sound
  Limited in Space
  Less Limited in Time

COMMUNICATIONS SURVEILLANCE

• Mail Covers
• Electronic Observation
  Wire-tap / Interception, e.g.
  Telegraph Traffic since the 1850s
  Telephone Traffic since the 1880s
  Proxy-servers and deep packet inspection (DPI), e.g. for
  Email Traffic since the 1980s
  Web Traffic since the 1990s
  Chat / IM Traffic since the 1990s
• Electronic Recording
  Wire-tap / Interception or Proxy-server, plus a recording device
• Access to Recorded Electronic Communication
  Access to, e.g.
  Email servers
  Email archives
  Weblogs
• Experience Surveillance
  Access to Library, Web-Searches, Library-Catalogue Searches, Weblogs, Purchases of materials indicative of behaviour or attitude, incl. books

DATA SURVEILLANCE

• Observation of Transactions
  As triggers for action, e.g. use of a card at an ATM or EFT/POS terminal
• Profiling
  Automated search of available data [acquired from various sources] for individuals who have a close fit to a set of characteristics of a particular class of person that has been inferred from past experience
• 'Front- End Verification'
  Automated cross-checking of new transaction data against previously-recorded data [held by other organisations]
• Access to Recorded Transactions [held by other organisations]
• Matching of Recorded Data
  '(Automated) Data Matching' or 'Computer Matching' is the expropriation of data maintained by one or more other personal data systems, in order to merge previously separate data about large numbers of individuals and thereby detect apparent inconsistencies or inconsistencies among data that purport to relate to the same individual
• Facilitative Mechanisms
  • Function Creep
    The use of data for a purpose other than the purpose it was collected.
    This includes expropriation of data that is authorised by law
  • Unauthorised Disclosure and Acquisition undertaken knowingly by both parties
  • Unauthorised Acquisition performed knowingly by one, but inadvertantly by the other. The inadvertance may be:
    • unauthorised disclosure through error
    • unauthorised disclosure through a contrivance, by the acquiring party, commonly a deceit, ia particular through such 'social engineering' techniques as pretexting (or blagging), including masquerade
  • Unauthorised Access by a third party without any involvement of the person in possession of the data, by means of 'hacking', better referred to as 'break-in' or 'cracking'
  • Data Consolidation, e.g. by combining the data holdings of what had previously been separate business units or government programs
  • Organisational Merger, e,g, corporate takeover, reorganisation of government agencies
  • Multi-Use Identifiers
  • National or General-Purpose Identification Schemes

LOCATION AND TRACKING SURVEILLANCE

This involves the observation and possibly also recording of a target's location relative to some physical space, or some virtual space (such as an Internet IP-address).

Longstanding forms of this category of surveillance include the use of human sight and hearing in order to perform a pursuit, and location stake-out (e.g. of the target's own home or workplace; sites of relations, friends, associates; or social locations); and the use of human informants, both in a casual manner, and in a more organised manner such as, in contemporary terms, 'crowd-sourcing'.

More sophisticated forms include the Detection and/or Recording:

• of the Natural Features of a Person
  e.g. finger, hand, iris and (possibly) facial biometrics
• of Features Associable with a Person
  e.g. adjacent-chip id (mobile devices, personal effects, vehicles)
• of Features Embedded in a Person
  e.g. implanted-chip id

Facilitative Mechanisms, include location-data retention and re-purposing, e.g. ANPR data ostensibly for traffic offences but actually or also for mass surveillance

BODY SURVEILLANCE ['+berveillance' type 1]

Detection and/or Recording of data from a person:

• of the Natural Features of a Person
  e.g. face-capillaries as indicators ot infection
  e.g. cheek-swabs, urine- and blood-samples for substance abuse testing
• of Features Associable with a Person
  e.g. adjacent-chip data-content (mobile devices, personal effects, vehicles)
• of Features Embedded in a Person
  e.g. implanted-bio-sensor data-content (e.g. vital signs, movements, consciousness, bodily functions)

OMNIPRESENT AND/OR OMNISCIENT SURVEILLANCE ['+berveillance' type 2]

Author Affiliations

Roger Clarke is Principal of Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, Canberra. He is also a Visiting Professor associated with the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation in UNSW Law, and a Visiting Professor in the Research School of Computer Science at the Australian National University.

The content and infrastructure for these community service pages are provided by Roger Clarke through his consultancy company, Xamax. From the site's beginnings in August 1994 until February 2009, the infrastructure was provided by the Australian National University. During that time, the site accumulated close to 30 million hits. It passed 65 million in early 2021. Sponsored by the Gallery, Bunhybee Grasslands, the extended Clarke Family, Knights of the Spatchcock and their drummer

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd ACN: 002 360 456 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 2 6288 6916

Created: 6 July 2022 - Last Amended: 17 July 2022 by Roger Clarke - Site Last Verified: 15 February 2009
This document is at www.rogerclarke.com/DV/ROSS.html
Mail to Webmaster   -    © Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd, 1995-2022   -    Privacy Policy