This
week’s reading presented different perspectives on surveillance. The authors in
general pointed out the significance of surveillance, despite the controversy
over privacy issues. Instead of banning the surveillance, the authors provided
countermeasures such as coveillance, and sousveillance.
As one
of the authors illustrated in the post, the future society presented in a movie
Minority Report is soon to arrive. Multiple number of lenses watch individuals,
and many devices are keeping track of individual data and information up to
date. In Minority Report, the main character Chief John Anderton face a huge
difficulty escaping the city because every personal information is digitalized,
and the personalized algorithms easily predicts individual’s behavior through previous
patterns. A way to avoid such society is through strengthening an individual
privacy, but in a society with a lot of lures for personal/consumer
information, it is hard to protect one’s privacy on the Internet. However,
different types of surveillance suggest a way to combat the situation with a
minimal privacy violation.
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| Someone named Bill provided his name and some part of his media account access to create this meme |
People
will keep sharing so having a good surveillance system is important. An author
suggested that sharing information and interacting with others are an old habit
of human nature. In the society where a community of people lived together and
shared everything, there was no such thing as a secret or a personal life. As
the Industrial revolution changed the way of living, and allowed individuals to
make his or her own living, a concept of personal life, privacy, and
individualism came to life. However, because it is a human tendency to share
and to be acknowledged, people in the modern age still do so. People share for
different reasons. Some would share memes or post like “When God made me” or
“Be like Bill” fun or to interact with others. Some would share their knowledge
and discovery to better the society. Some share their thoughts and situations
for help. Whichever reason it is, to share something there is always a cost of
privacy. People who participated in making a personalized meme gave away their
personal information such as names and emails, people who shared their ideas
gave away their private ideas, and people who posted for help gave away their
personal situation. People knew what they were giving up, but they still
continued to share because it is important for people to share with others.
Among
the different types of surveillance system, I liked the idea of sousveillance
system. Today’s surveillance system is from top to bottom. Lenses are above
looking at us. An author suggested coveillance system, which the two side
surveillance each other, but this doesn’t make sense because the power of the
two sides is not equally distributed. Like in the politics, where the power is
separated into three groups, there needs to be more than three groups of
surveillance. The more surveillance groups society has, the more transparent mutual
control is possible. What is important in this sousveillance is whose
information is available for which surveillance group. The author of “eyes on
the street or creepy surveillance?” suggested information of youth in need of
help should be given to the organization that can help the kids, instead of
investigative organization. I think this is a great idea since the surveillance
organization will then be able to help the people who are in need with minimum
privacy violation. As such, as the more various parts of the society take part
in the surveillance activity, the more optimal surveillance will be possible
for individuals, without harming his or her privacy. And that is the sousveillance.
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