Exploring Consciousness: The Online Community’s Understanding of Mobile Technology Surveillance

Abstract

This paper examines subjective understandings and experiences of mobile technology surveillance, an area of surveillance studies literature that is significantly underexplored in North America. Drawing on Ewick and Silbey’s (1998) popular socio-legal conception of legal consciousness, the paper constructs a similar concept in the domain of surveillance. Surveillance consciousness of two mobile surveillance technologies—drones and Stingrays—is explored through online data. Upon analyzing reactions to surveillance, the paper expounds on the complexities found therein, which conform to Ewick and Silbey’s tripartite set of schemas. Such complexities contribute to surveillance studies by addressing whether prevalent theoretical models of surveillance can be sufficiently used to capture the current surveillance society. In its entirety, this paper demonstrates how surveillance and socio-legal studies benefit from greater dialogue and cross-fertilization.