Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance

In Anders Albrechtslund’s article Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance,found here online: http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2142/1949,

 he examines the rise in surveillance, lack of privacy online and outside and who is to be held accountable. Surveillance on the internet seems to be actively participated in and surveillance on the streets appears to be approved because of the notion that it is only there for our safety; to protect us. The cause and effect and this “creeper” culture can be traced back to our own behaviour and frequent failure to read “the fine print.” Albrechtslund explains the extent of what is available to us to see

“This entails an interesting new relation between cyberspace and physical places, which adds to the already extended information infrastructure of Web 2.0. Online social networking sites already give insights into users’ thoughts (blogging software), their likes (social bookmarking services), what music they are listening to (e.g., Last.fm), and the practice of geotagging means sharing information about the whereabouts of the user and, in some cases, the people in the vicinity of the user.”

Despite being an obvious threat, upon deeper analisys, online surveillance cannot be thought of as a larger threat than surveillance "in the real world."  Firstly because they can be thought of so much as 2 separate things-the online world and the "real" world are the same in this circumstance, especially when considering our personal profiles and activity. Secondly because online we do it knowingly: we are participators in the surveillance of others and being under surveillance-and we know it. There is a certain expectance that we have a right to some privacy in our lives. Placing cameras in public spaces might not always be solely in the interest of catching criminals but to keep tabs on what is going on within an area. Just like online, the captured images from these street cameras can be incriminating. The mere fact that we accept being photographed and filmed while going about our everyday activities (online OR outside) makes it seem like we do not value privacy and this is worrisome because where does it stop? Where is an acceptable place to put a camera and where is not? Right now there seems to be no clear rules. There is an idea that surveillance has positive social benefits; we see this in commercials telling us that cameras on the streets will help fight crime.  This constant knowledge of what the other is thinking or doing creates a sort of weird relationship between the cyber world and the physical world.

“When you operate under this watchful eye, your entire life becomes meaningless.”

In John Berger’s novel Ways of Seeing , which can be read online here: http://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=DuEOAAAAQAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA107&dq=how+we+look+at+ones+we+love&ots=XbOAKGHLYT&sig=vpO1vFFxy6I2fo51uKb8RN9SUC0#v=onepage&q&f=false

he explains that “women act, men appear.” What he means by this, and he was writing about past historical periods, was that traditionally men were the dominant viewers, and women acted as they would like to be seen in their eyes. He went on to explain that while men act, women are constantly thinking of how they appear when they act. He uses the example of a weeping woman at her father’s funeral. While she sincerely feels grief for her deceased father, she is thinking about what her weeping looks like to the men she knows are watching her. The way in which we are living now, under this watchful eye, people are no longer acting, they are appearing. Always.

“In public opinion and academia, many people have voiced concern and amazement about the openness, or perhaps thoughtlessness, expressed in the behavior of social networking site’s users. As Jon Callas, chief security officer at the encryption software maker, PGP, puts it: “I am continually shocked and appalled at the details people voluntarily post online about themselves” (quoted in Marks, 2006).”

I’m going to draw on a personal experience. I spent 2 years travelling and one thing I observed in so many people was that when they were at a historical site, a museum, beautiful landscape scenery or out at a party, they were seldom experiencing the moment. People were snapping photos constantly without stopping to look at anything. They were continuously thinking about their Facebook albums and missing the experience, making it meaningless. As soon as I would go into the hostel, I would see everyone lining up for the three computers and immediately uploading their day’s worth of activities for everyone to view and comment on. At the time I found it completely ludicrous but when I returned I observed that this is the norm in our society. People seem to have a need for validation. We are no longer passive lookers. We actively participate in others lives and at the same time give them permission to participate in ours.

We express our concern about being “lurked” and “creeped” but we condone it at the same time. We get what we encourage. There are many complaints about “infotainment” news taking up most of our magazines and newspapers but this is what sells; which means this is what we encourage. This surveillance epidemic cannot fully be blamed on companies and governments but also on us because we show them that it’s ok, we encourage this behaviour.  This raises another issue: accountability. We are now accountable for things we would never be accountable for in the past. There used to be a separation between people’s social, work, education and love life but now these lines are blurred. This allows for disciplinary action for activities happening outside the previous boundaries of these formerly separate entities. Soon it will not only be our university, spouses or bosses punishing us but the government and the law. This is something that should be thought through before submitting any personal information to the web and we should always know what we are getting into i.e. reading the fine print and re-reading the fine-print when the terms of use change (because they frequently do.)