The world wide web of surveillance: The internet and off‐world power‐flows

Abstract

Surveillance, as the automatic electronic gleaning of personal data, has developed rapidly on the Internet, and the process is likely to intensify with the commercialization of such networked, computer‐mediated communications. After placing this phenomenon in the context of already existing surveillance systems, some aspects of ‘cyberspace surveillance’ are examined. These include employment monitoring, policing and security, and marketing, the latter of which is the most generalized and the least perceptible to data subjects. ‘Cookies’ and ‘spiders’ are among the newer technical innovations mentioned, in relation to their social purposes.

Possible explanatory frameworks are discussed, among which risk management, simulated surveillance, panopticism, and biopower are of particular importance. These may be used to question any mere theoretical preoccupation with discrete individuals, and readily identifiable organizations. It is argued, however, that such theoretical advances may often be complementary with, rather than exclusive of, those explanations that focus on questions of identity and personhood, or of difference and social division. How apparently ‘off‐world’ power‐flows in simulated surveillance situations actually reinforce real social inequalities, and the vulnerability of certain social groups to constraint or control, should be the focus of efforts to understand ‘cyberspace surveillance’.

Keywords:

• Surveillance
• Internet
• panoptic
• biopower
• risk
• privacy