Someone to Watch Over Us:

Abstract

Are we becoming a surveillance society? Sophisticated devices and techniques have greatly enhanced the capacity of government to intrude into the lives of citizens. Many of the new forms of surveillance are well suited to the networked society. Technology now allows the compilation, storage, matching, analysis and dissemination of personal data at high speed and low cost. But the private sector is also involved. Simply by participating in modern commerce, individuals are significantly eroding their own privacy. While there may be broad public support for the preventive role of many forms of overt surveillance, there are also serious weaknesses in the legislative frameworks within which the monitoring of citizens by overt and covert means takes place. There are concerns about accountability, fairness and the effects on the privacy rights of those who may be unwittingly caught up in the process. The new forms of surveillance are evocative of the old in the use of surveillance as an exercise of power and discipline.