Summary - Surveillance Society

Title of article: Surveillance Society
Author: David Lyon
Publisher: festivaldeldiritto.it
Date published: September 2008

Theme:Society Control
Influence
Government

Summary of text:
David Lyon transcript's on surveillance with in society discusses; What is the surveillance society?, What is wrong with surveillance society? and Defining surveillance; tracing surveillance society.

Lyon argues that a "Surveillance Society" can no longer be discussed in a further tense, as surveillance place a key role in everyones life, with and without there knowledge. Lyon considers surveillance as a method of seeing the modern day world for what it is. However society view surveillance as an outcome of modern organisation trends in workplaces, businesses and the military than as a covert conspiracy.

Surveillance has all ways existed, Lyon proposes saying that people have all ways watched over one and another for mutual care and for moral caution. However modern citizens can expect that rights would be respected because they were protected by accurate records (obtained by surveillance) as well as by law.

The growth of the military, police departments and new technologies in the twentieth century, improved intelligence-gathering, identification and tracking techniques, meaning that surveillance grows as a part of just being modern. However it is the Impersonal and rule-centred practices that leads to a growth in surveillance. Surveillance is the outcome of bureaucratic organizational practices and the desire for efficiency, speed, control and coordination, Lyon proposes.

Lyon considers that, surveillance expansion in the twenty-first century are producing situations where distinctions of class, race, gender, geography and citizenship are currently being exacerbated and institutionalized. For example, Muslim Americans are branded as unfit for travel using no-fly lists or are otherwise subject to racial profiling. This surveillance is a direct result to the 'war on terror' showing that political, social, religious, and scientific events have an impact of how surveillance is carried out.

Where purposeful, routine, systematic and focused attention paid to personal details for the sake of control, entitlement, management, influence or protection, surveillance can be found.

In the twenty first century surveillance as according to Roger Clarke has change to dataveilance, the collection of data referring to transactions, exchanges, statuses and accounts. However modern surveillance (or dataveilance) has only existed since the 1970's due to the rise of computers , which were to make for a massive expansion in the ways in which surveillance occurs.

Key points of the text:

• Surveillance is a part of the twenty-first century and could no longer be referred to in the future tense.
• The growth of the military, police departments and technologies has led to a improvements in intelligence-gathering, identification and tracking techniques.
• Distinctions of class, race, gender, geography and citizenship are currently being exacerbated and institutionalized due to surveillance. 
• Surveillance can be found where purposeful, routine, systematic and focused attention paid to personal details, for the sake of control, entitlement, management, influence or protection.
• Dataveilance, the collection of data referring to transactions, exchanges, statuses and accounts.
• Computers led to an expansion in the ways in which surveillance occurs.
• Surveillance is bound up with what we call ‘governance.’ Governance controls access, opportunities, chances and even helps to channel choices, often using personal data to determine who gets what

Key Quote 2-3:
"Impersonal and rule-centred practices spawned surveillance."

"Interestingly, our image of state surveillance is often shaped by novels and films."

(Max Weber) "He saw this surveillance, keeping detailed records, collating information, limiting access to certain eligible persons, not only as evidence of ‘progress,’ but as deeply ambiguous. At worst, he predicted that the efficient but soulless world of new organizational methods in every sphere would become an 'iron cage'."

My Response:

After reading David Lyon's transcript, I can say that I have been opened up to some new ideas about surveillance and some old ideas, and for both I can say that I agree and disagree with each. I agree that the introduce of computer has lead to a rise is online or digital surveillance and also the idea that profiling people as a result of the growth of surveillance, widening the gap of class, race, gender, geography and citizenship for the lager powerful conglomerates. However in even day life I do not feel the a gap between people is getting wider in fact I believer that the gap between people is gapping smaller, people of different background are mixing more. I also disagree with the statement that we can no longer referred to surveillance in the future tense as we can not defiantly define the pinnacle of surveillance until we as a society have pact the era and can look back on it.