A Report on the Surveillance Society: For the Information Commissioner by the Surveillance Studies Network

Abstract

This is a detailed report which was specially commissioned for the 28th International Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners’ Conference and looks at surveillance in 2006 and projects forward ten years to 2016. It defines and provides a perspective on a surveillance society as one where technology is extensively and routinely used to track and record activities and movements. This includes systematic tracking and recording of travel and use of public services, automated use of CCTV, analysis of buying habits and financial transactions, and work place monitoring of telephone calls, email and internet use. This can often be in ways which are invisible or not obvious to ordinary individuals as they are watched and monitored, and the report shows how pervasive surveillance is set to accelerate in the years to come. The report highlights the term ‘social sorting’, which is a new form of discrimination in the digital space. PapersGroups