decoding the digital society

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Decoding the Digital

Society

Some say we live in a surveillance society,nothing we do is secret; many have the notionthat ‘Big Brother is watching you’. George Orwellpredicted changes in his book, 1984. With thecontroversial aspect of ID cards and constantcapturing of the public through CCTV, discussthese issues and reflect upon the impact(s) of thiswithin the digital society. Say whether you thinkthis is an infringement of a person’s privacy.

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Contents

Introduction.........................................................................................................page 3

Panopticism........................................................................................................page 6

New Surveillance Technology............................................................................page 7

Little Brother.......................................................................................................page 8

Minority Report ...................................................................................................page 9

1984 ..................................................................................................................page 12

Conclusion........................................................................................................page 14

Glossary............................................................................................................page 14

Reference List...................................................................................................page 14



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Surveillance Society

Introduction

Rheingold states:

“Pervasive computing is converging with ubiquitous surveillance, providing the totalitarian snoop power depicted in Orwell’s 1984” (Rheingold, 2002,Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, p.185)

In a world where there is mass dependence on intelligent mass communication devices we

are constantly under the dissecting eye of the authoritative bodies representing our

government. Surveillance technology is tasked to monitor our behaviour, activities, as well

as any information that is changed. As Howard Rheingold states in his book Smart Mobs:

The Next Social Revolution (2002) our need to explore new and evolving technologies in

communication has converged with surveillance in order to provide more accurate findings

on how the public live and where they go. Also mentioned is the “totalitarian snoop power

depicted in Orwell’s 1984”. This obviously refers to George Orwell who wrote the novel 1984

(1949) which describes the world of Winston Smith as being constantly at war, under

absolute surveillance and public mind control, and the voiding of every citizen’s rights. This

is Orwell’s chilling testament to an idea posed by Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man and

Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf that suggests an idea, such as total surveillance, can become

instinctive when the targeted minds have been subjected to it for a long enough period, such

as from birth.

It can be forgiven to assume that Closed-circuit Television (CCTV) is the only source

of surveillance in the United Kingdom because we are all so used to the site of them

although research has been undertaken to improve ever more versatile and probing

technology to identify and track the public. Many such ideas are linked with biometrics in

order to recognise a certain distinguishing feature or trait associated with a certain individual

or individuals, such as how they walk.

Feeling uncomfortable with the ever encroaching increase in security is perfectly

normal although this increase provides the ability to aid crime prevention and solving. But

along with yet more sophisticated security can the public begin to feel mistreated or



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mistrusted? For example Road Traffic Law enforcement technologies such as speed

cameras can clock someone breaking the speed limit by a marginal amount and so deal with

that individual despite any extenuating circumstances if indeed there is any.

A proposed means of surveillance in the present is a nationalised identity card for the

United Kingdom. The card will include fifty categories of information that the National Identity

Register is allowed to obtain, including ten digitised finger prints, a digitised facial scan, and

an iris scan.

Will there come a time when society will decide to draw the line?

There are many ways surveillance can be injected in to our lives and I will discuss

each one here:

• Computer Surveillance, in the majority, involves the monitoring of data and traffic on

the internet. In the USA there is a piece of legislation called the Communications Assistance

for Law Enforcement Act which allows the monitoring of all phone calls and broadband

internet traffic by law enforcement.

There is far too much data on the Internet for human investigators to manually search

through all of it. So automated Internet surveillance computers sift through the vast amount

of intercepted Internet traffic and identify and report to human investigators traffic considered

interesting by using certain "trigger" words or phrases, visiting certain types of web sites, or

communicating via email or chat with suspicious individuals or groups.

• Law enforcement and intelligence services in the U.K. and the USA possess

technology to remotely activate the microphones in mobile phones in order to listen to

conversations that take place near the phone.

The geographical location of a mobile is easily traced using a technique called

multilateration to calculate differences in time for a signal to reach base stations near the

mobile phones owner. The legality of such techniques is at best controversial and takes the

guise of “You don’t ask we won’t tell”.



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• Perhaps the most recognised form of surveillance is the CCTV cameras as well as

other forms of video recorders. The use of CCTV by governments and businesses has

dramatically increased, in the UK alone there are approximately 4.2 million surveillance

cameras. The development of CCTV cameras watching public areas has been argued to

represent a risk to citizen’s privacy. These developments cooperate with biometric data to

identify people and track them through busy areas.

• A common form of surveillance is to use social network sites such as Facebook and

Twitter as well as telephone and mobile phone records in order to extract useful information

such as personal interests, friendships, beliefs, and activities. There is a belief it is a

personal choice to use social sites and so it is voluntary surveillance.

• Aerial surveillance is the gathering of surveillance from an airborne vehicle. Digital

imaging technology, smaller computers, and numerous other technological advances have

contributed to rapid advances in aerial surveillance. There are plans in the UK is currently

working on plans to build a fleet of surveillance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to be used

by the police. UAVs also carry the capability to be used in crowd control scenarios by being

deployed with tasers.

Further development of UAVs foretells a future of self directing drones which can

automatically patrol a city and notify human operators of something suspicious. This will

dramatically reduce the need for human operators whilst increasing the area of surveillance.

• Data mining is an application to discover unnoticed interactions within the data. Data

profiling is the process of using the information about a particular individual or group in order

to generate a profile.

• Corporate surveillance, often used for marketing purposes, is the monitoring of an

individual or group by a corporation. It enables the corporation to better tailor their products

or services to be desirable by their customers as well as targeted advertisements on Google

etc.



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• Informants are common even though there are less problematic ways of surveillance,

it is the informant’s job to disclose any information they know on organisations and its

members.

• Satellite imagery and aerial surveillance can be used to observe the activities of

citizens, detect chemical traces, and identify objects and buildings.

• One of the simplest forms of surveillance and identification is the carrying of identity

cards such as driver’s licenses, credit and debit cards etc. Many countries have in place a

national identity card system which at the moment is facing opposition in the UK.

• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the use of very small electronic devices

which are for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves and can be used to

track and identify objects for a variety of purposes.

Many companies use these RFID tags to monitor their employees while they are

working. There is opposition to this and there are those who feel it is dehumanising to have

their movements tracked, some think it is a possibility that in the future everyone will be

tracked everywhere they go.

Panopticism

Panopticism is originally the social theory brain child of Michel Foucault in his book

Discipline and Punish (1975). In his book Foucalt discusses the fundamentals of an earlier

social theorist Jeremy Bentham who developed the idea of a panopticon (see Figure 1), a

functioning representation of panopticism. This particular style of architecture developed by

Bentham is particularly for institutions that require constant surveillance of the many by thefew, for example prisons.

The layout suggested is as follows: it is a building with a tower in the centre from

which all the surrounding prison cells are visible although the inside of the tower cannot be

seen. It individualises and leaves them constantly visible; never knowing when they are

being observed. Of course this is an example of how a panoptic prison may be run but it is

also possible to use this set up in schools, and laboratories etc.



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Through the process of individualising the subject and putting them in a state of

constant surveillance, efficiency is maximised and power is optimised despite no actual

assertion.

This idea of panoptics was derived from the need of easy supervision and so through

Foucault became a metaphor for modern disciplinary societies and their inclination for

“snoop power” and equilibrium.

Fig.1

New Surveillance Technology

The use of biometrics technologies such as fingerprint, facial, and retinal recognition has

increased. Biometrics comprises methods for uniquely recognising humans based upon one

or more physical and behavioural traits. For example in computer science biometrics are

used as a form of identity access management and access control. It is also used to identify

individuals in a group that are under surveillance.

Characteristics of biometrics are split into two main areas: physiological in relation to

the shape of the body, for instance fingerprint and facial recognition, Deoxyribonucleic acid

(DNA), hand and palm geometry, iris recognition, and odour and scent. The phrase

behaviourmetrics is related to the behaviour of the person and includes typing rhythm, gait,

and voice. Of course these examples are rather limiting because there are far more. Strictly



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speaking voice recognition is also a physiological trait because every person has their own

vocal tract although it is mainly based on the study of how and the way a person speaks.

Such interest has been intensified with various projects from governments that want

to incorporate biometric technologies for uses in identification and verification. By having

biometric information on record it can be harder to steal someone’s identity and use it to

access their personal data such as their bank account or medical records. Giving the

authority to the government to allow this induces fears of cover ups and framings of

individuals. This could happen in a number of ways for example the planting of DNA at a

crime scene.

Of course our information will not be totally safe, for example in Demolition Man

(1993) a convicted killer cryogenically frozen escapes by using an employee’s, of the facility,

eye to get through the retinal scan.

Biometrics of course would revolutionise crime solving capabilities. By having every

citizen’s physiological and behavioural traits on governmental records would make solving

any crime easier and more criminals would be punished at a faster rate.

Little Brother

As we progress into the future it may not be Big Brother who is watching us but rather Little

Brother. Nanotechnology and micro scale technology may make it possible to watch every

aspect of society and has been suitably christened the Nano-panopticon.

Technologies such as writing and clocks have long ago ceased to be noticed as

technologies yet are continually used by authority to extend control. Nanotechnology and

micro scale technology offer a new platform to do the same although it may still be some

time before they thicken the air of sci-fi dystopias.

The nano-panopticon describes the emergence of a future absent of privacy in which

every aspect of society can be tracked, measured and be visible. Nanotechnology is

stimulating significant advances in surveillance and monitoring technology. By facilitating the

miniaturisation of remote camera technology, the panoptic effects from surveillance become



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magnified. It will soon become possible to place undetectable video cameras, microphones

and transmitters anywhere one wishes.

A project described as “The Little Brother Project”, involves micro scale sensors

distributed over farmers’ fields to measure all aspects of crop development and

environmental conditions. This data will then be wirelessly transmitted to computer models

which then tell the farmer how to farm. In reality this will make the farmer a mere functionary

of larger forces.

Nano-defence research has a significant focus on developing battlefield sensors,

relaying an accurate picture of enemy troop movements or presence of explosive and

biological agents. It is also highly possible that they can be woven into cloth or mixed with

any number of common materials.

Most of the nanosensor projects currently being pursued concern themselves with

the detection of biological agents, toxic chemicals or explosives at airports. Some of the

more complex devices under development detect the presence of certain molecules,

proteins, enzymes or genetic markers.

Does this technology represent the death of privacy as we know it?

Privacy can be defined as the choice and right to be left alone, and the choice and

right to control flow of personal information.

Minority Report

The wide-scale use of surveillance equipment

may create a society with low levels of trust. These uses of nanotechnology could depress

innovation and lead society towards an Orwellian future.

Minority Report (2002) is a film focussing on a dystopian society forged by extreme

surveillance and preventive crime. It is set in 2054 and murder has been completely cut in

the city of Washington, DC by a police force called Precrime. The officers of Precrime

analyse and interpret the visions of three “precogs” in order to and down and stop murders

before they happen. The chief of the force is John Anderton and works directly for Precrimes



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director Lamar Burgess, however Anderton has hidden an illegal drug addiction since the

disappearance of his son and the estranging of his wife.

On the eve Precrime is going national the Department of Justice represents

themselves through Danny Witwer to investigate Precrime. During Witwer’s visit the precogs

witness Anderton killing a man called Leo Crow, Anderton escapes the Precrime

headquarters in order to clear his name and subsequently discovers deeper conspiracies.

Fig. 2

Through the opening

sequence we obtain information on

the whole Minority Report world (see

Figure 2 ): we find out the date and

place where the action takes place,

we know that a police system has

been implemented that is linked to the legal system, there are judges and witnesses present

(this emphasises that there is a legal process that supports or rejects the thoughts of the

Precrime force) via teleconference that decide whether it is lawful or not to pursue the

precriminal, we are allowed to see the precogs (see Figure 3 ) and their mental images take

a visual form on three screens above them, which leads to a sophisticated system which

uses wooden balls with the name of the criminal and of the victim(s), we know that there are

now practically no premeditated crime,

only crimes of passion. Only when the

judges and witnesses approve do the

Precrime force act and head for where the

crime is about to be committed.

Fig. 3

Through the special effects deployed we are able to see the basic information

contributed to the construction of the story: the running of Precrime, the physical

environment, the efficiency of the police, and the impossibility of hiding from justice.



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The images projected by the precogs and interpreted both by Anderton and the other

officers of the Precrime investigators point to the idea that Anderton kills the alleged

kidnapper of his son. But when we see this murder live and not through the scattered visions

(see Figure 4 ) of the precogs it becomes clear that Anderton chooses not to kill the man and

that the man’s death is an accident. Unaware of this information the Precrime force continue

to track Anderton down, this is to emphasise the reliability of the system.

Fig. 4

Another part of the film which shows how the

images transmitted by the precogs can be

misinterpreted is the discovery of the death of Ann

Lively (one of the precog’s mother) by the director of

Precrime Lamar Burgess. In this case the police

discarded the images as waste predictions of her

murder. This allows the viewers to observe that the

interpreters did not recognise the subtle changes in the

predictions that would suggest it was a different

murder. Ann Lively was murdered by a lake, in one

sequence the waves are been blown in one direction and in the next sequence the waves

are being blown in the opposite direction. This is because the murder in the first sequence

was prevented but in the second sequence it is perpetrated in the same way by Buress. Ann

Lively is subsequently deleted from the Precrime files; this further suggests the reliability of

the system is questionable.

It becomes gradually more obvious how the government controls the citizens. When

Anderton flees the Precrime headquarters, when he is accused of committing murder in the

future, he escapes in his vehicle. But the control of the vehicle is handed over to Precrime in

order to take Anderton to the police. Throughout this sequence not only does the

government have control over the vehicles, but it also knows at any given time where



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everyone is. There are also iris reading devices located in public areas which can help the

police locate his whereabouts.

A sequence later on in the film sees the police use robotic spiders to access any area

in order to scan citizen’s iris’s to confirm their identity and so find Anderton through process

of elimination (see Figure 5 ).

Fig. 5

These spiders are

significant because they invade

people’s private lives. For

example a couple having sexual

intercourse immediately stop what they are doing so they can have their iris’s scanned and

immediately carry on right afterwards. This shows that extreme surveillance has been

accepted by the population and also highlights and questions just how suitable and useful a

precriminal justice system and constant surveillance is.

1984

1984, by George Orwell, is a dystopian novel about a totalitarian regime and life in society in

Airstrip One (Britain), Oceania. This is a world of perpetual war, excessive surveillance,

public mind control, and the voiding of citizens rights. The book follows Winston Smith, an

employee of the Ministry of Truth, who is tasked with the job of revising historical records in

order to show that the government is infallible. Throughout the book Smith becomes more

disillusioned to the point where he rebels against Big Brother which leads to him being

captured, tortured and then rehabilitated.

The Party constantly watches all citizens for any sign of rebellion or though-crime but

tries to appear kind and concerned rather than ruthless and invasive. It adopts the guise of

Big Brother, a protective and reassuring persona, with the slogan “Big Brother is Watching

You”.



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One of the most important ways that the Party keeps the people under surveillance is

through telescreens which are found in all rooms belonging to Party members such as

Smith, as well as public areas. It is guesswork to know when the Thought Police tap into any

telescreen or whether they watch all of them at the same time, but the screens never turn

off. It is only senior members of the party that can turn the telescreens of mostly because

they feel they do not pose a threat to the Party ad they wish to enjoy certain pleasures

unseen. Smith tells the reader how dangerous it is to allow your thoughts to wander when

you are in public or in front of telescreen because the facial expressions are watched very

closely these are known as “facecrime”. In addition to telescreens, the police also have

patrols of surveillance helicopters that fly around peering into people's windows.

Informants are used in the form of children to keep their parents under constant

surveillance. Through a children’s group, much like the scouts and guides, the Spies who

encourage children to eavesdrop to become a hero of the Party.

Even marriages are closely observed. The Party supervises all marriages in order to

avoid sexual desire; they refuse permission to any couple who seemed to be attracted to

each other. Even when Smith is at work he is closely watched by the telescreen.

Spare time is also closely monitored because a Party member cannot have any time

their selves unless they are asleep. This is done by checking attendance to the Community

Centre.

Even in the open country there are microphones which are hidden to pick up and

recognise voices because it is not feasible to have telescreens on every tree. Making the

journey to the open country is just as dangerous because it is frowned upon to make a

journey on your own and there are many patrols in railway stations that check your papers

as well as interrogate you.

It is also evident the Party is constantly researching new ways to find out what people

are thinking, there are scientists who are studying facial expressions, gestures and tones of

voice, and testing the usefulness of drugs, shock therapy, hypnosis, and physical torture.



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Conclusion

Within surveillance societies it easy to understand that there are two sides of the coin. One

represents the need to combat terrorism and crime, the other is our paranoia stemming from

constantly being watched.

In novels and films such as 1984 and Minority Report we have been fed our personal

portrayal of vicious government intrusion as well as seemingly necessary precautions in law

enforcement etc. To the point where we may, in the future, not remember what is right and

what is suspicious concerning the surveillance technology distributed into our streets and

houses etc. In present society we are confronted with evolving technology but also

increasing “dataveillance”, again like I have previously mentioned about physical

surveillance techniques, future society may have desensitised feelings towards giving up

their personnel information to their government.

This would of course create seamlessly efficient crime solving at the cost of personal

feelings because everyone will be traceable although there is the outlandish view that the

authorities are perfectly capable of using said information to “frame” individuals.

Where social networking is concerned it is up to the individual to decide the amount

of censorship of their personal information is required. As well as the use of webcams, this

can be viewed as a direct source of twenty four hour surveillance.

Glossary

CCTV – Closed-circuit Television

DNA – Deoxyribonucleic acidRFID – Radio Frequency Identification

UAV – Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

UK – United Kingdom

USA – United States of America

Reference List

Darwin, C. (1871) The Descent of Man. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street.



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Foucault, M. (1975) Discipline and Punish. France: Éditions Gallimard

Hitler, A (1925) Mein Kampf. Munich: Franz Eher Verlag

Orwell, G. (1949) 1984. England: Penguin Books.

Rheingold, H (2002) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution . Basic Books.

Film Reference List

1984 (1984) Directed by Michael Radford. United Kingdom, Atlantic Releasing. [Film: 35mm]

Demolition Man (1993) Directed by Brambilla, M. USA Warner Bros [Film: 35mm]

Minority Report (2002) Directed by Steven Spielberg. USA, 20th

Century Fox/Dreamworks.[Film: 35mm]

Image Reference List

Unknown (n.d.) Minority Report [online image] Available at:<http://adage.com/images/bin/image/medium/am.07.jpg> [Accessed 9th

May 2010]

Unknown (n.d.) Panopticon [online image] Available at:<http://www.deakin.edu.au/alfreddeakin/spc/exhibitions/candp/Panopticon.jpg>[Accessed 30th

April 2010]

Unknown (n.d.) Minority Report [online image] Available at:<http://linuxology.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/minority-report-ui.jpg> [Accessed 9th

May 2010]

Unknown (n.d.) Minority Report [online image] Available at:<http://www.marplescouts.co.uk/archive/files/precog.jpg> [Accessed 9th

May 2010]

Unknown (n.d.) Panopticon [online image] Available at:<http://meddletv.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/panopticon1.jpg> [Accessed 30th

April2010]

Unknown (n.d.) Minority Report [online image] Available at:<http://scriptreadersdigest.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/minority-report-spiders.jpg>[Accessed 9th

May 2010]

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