Michael Zimmer.org

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Surveillance Studies Summer Seminar hosted by the Surveillance Project at Queens University. The seminar was led by world-class surveillance studies experts: David Lyon, Kevin Haggerty, and Kirstie Ball. About twenty graduate students attended from across the globe, whose disciplinary backgrounds spanned sociology, communication, criminology, information studies, and political science. The seminar program can be found here. Some highlights included:
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One of Kevin Haggerty’s lectures discussed the limitations of relying on a Foucauldian analysis of surveillance, and criticized the tendency by academics and …

With the dissertation completed (the defense still awaits), I can now turn my attention to a few other projects for the summer months. Primary among them is finishing up a book collecting various interdisciplinary research papers on Web search engines I’m editing with Amanda Spink.
Also on the summer agenda are two exciting workshops. First, I’ll be attending the “Surveillance Summer Seminar” hosted by the Surveillance Project at Queens University:
The Surveillance Summer Seminar provides an intensive, multi-disciplinary learning experience that addresses key issues of surveillance studies, and in ways that would …

On the heels of recent revelations that the FBI abused their power to issue national security letters for illegal domestic surveillance, the FBI now also admits that they have contracts with AT&T, Verizon and MCI to harvest phone records on American citizens.
As usual, 27b Stroke 6, has excellent coverage on the issue:

AT&T, Verizon: We Obeyed FBI “Emergency” Requests – 739 of Them
Homeland Data Tool Needs Privacy Help, Report Says
FBI Confirms Contracts with AT&T, Verizon and MCI
FBI Knew Spying Was Illegal in 2004, Did Nothing
FBI Broke Law Using Patriot Powers, Former …

Another slick animation outlining the threats of our growing surveillance society: Big Brother State (YouTube version here)
[via Jeremy Hunsinger]

In what should not come as that big of a surprise, AP reports:
The FBI improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a Justice Department audit concluded Friday.
And for three years the FBI underreported to Congress how often it forced businesses to turn over the customer data, the audit found.
…The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also …

While we’re all too familiar with how surveillance cameras are becoming ubiquitous, they are now also becoming recursive: CCTV to safeguard speed cameras

I just received a (spam) e-mail asking me if I’m interested in becoming a reseller of the TrackStick or TrackStick Pro. Um, no.
TrackStick is a GPS tracking device featuring software integrated with Google Maps to enable tracking of oneself (I suppose) and amateur surveillance of others (more likely). The device records its location, time, date, speed, heading and altitude at preset intervals. With over 1Mb of memory, they claim it can store months of travel information. Downloading the data to their software allows the user to trace the devices activity …

Both CNet and EPIC have released their Privacy Year in Review for 2006.
Some highlights from CNet’s 2006: A privacy and surveillance year in review:
Gonzales: NSA may tap ‘ordinary’ Americans’ e-mail (February 6, 2006): During Senate hearing, attorney general declines to offer reassurances about a secret surveillance program.
Judge: Google must give feds limited access to records (March 17, 2006): Privacy-aware ruling says search giant must turn over a swath of indexed URLs–but not users’ queries.
Appeals court upholds Net-wiretapping rules (June 9, 2006): Bush administration’s Net surveillance plans receive boost from appeals …

The NY Times has a feature today on the prevalence of GPS-enabled cell phones for the surveillance of one’s kids. (Boost Mobile [page has audio] has also been pitching their GPS tracking features to adults so you can “know where your friends are at.”)
Unfortunately I’m much too busy writing the diss to provide any nuanced reaction (I’ll link to related posts below the jump). Suffice it to say that the word “privacy” does not appear in the Times article.

Another example of the need for value-conscious design:
Wired News summarizes a damning report from four University of Washington researchers that reveals how security flaws in the new RFID-powered Nike + iPod Sport Kit make it easy for tech-savvy stalkers, spouses, thieves, corporations, or governments (oh my!) to track your movements via those nifty shoes. From the report’s overview:
Key industry players are incorporating wireless radio communications capabilities into many new personal consumer products. For example, the new Nike+iPod Sport Kit from Apple consists of two …

There has been a spurt of media attention paid to the privacy and surveillance concerns of GPS enabled cellphones:

GPS Surveillance Creeps into Daily Life (New Standard)
Cellphone as Tracker: X Marks Your Doubts (New York Times)
Phone service allows people to track their friends (San Francisco Chronicle)

I don’t have a lot of time to comment right now, but this excerpt from the New Standard article sums up much of my concern:
Koroknay-Palicz also sees long-term consequences of this monitoring.
“If we raise kids with no expectation of privacy, then they’re going to become …

Blogging has been light (again), as I’ve been preparing for my final conference trip. This time, I’m in San Antonio, TX for the 92nd Annual Convention of the National Communication Association. I’m presenting on an amazing panel titled “Visualizing Security: Digitizing Surveillance and the Body” with Shoshana Magnet (Institute of Communciations Research, Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Kelly Gates (Media Studies, Queens College, CUNY), and Rachel Hall (Communication Studies, Louisiana State University).
My paper is on Google as an infrastructure of dataveillance, a draft of which can be downloaded here (PDF). Below is the …

Wired details the potential impact the Democratic takeover of Congress will have on technology devopment, use and policy. Specific attention is paid to privacy and surveillance technologies:
[I]t’s unlikely that Democrats — facing a presidential election in 2008 and fearful of looking soft on terrorism — will be rewriting the Patriot Act any time soon. Instead, they will probably save their ink for subpoenas and opening statements at hearings into the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism policies.
Voters issued a pink slip to Ohio’s Dewine and Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, two high-profile supporters …

I sat in on a fascinating panel on surveillance in MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) annual meeting in Vancouver last week:
DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH: THE GAME
ABSTRACT:  This panel brings together scholars from different perspectives in game studies to reflect on issues of surveillance and how technologies of surveillance have become embedded within the spaces of massively multiplayer online games.  Because surveillance in these spaces can be absolute, with every character’s movement, communication, and decision logged, recorded, and subject to reproduction, it becomes …

Bob Sullivan at MSNBC has started a 6-part special report called “Privacy Lost”, examining the erosion of American’s privacy and the increasing store of personal data being collected.
Part one asks, “Privacy is under attack, but does anybody care?” First, Sullivan reminds us that people often say they want privacy, but often act as if they don’t:
When pollsters ask Americans about privacy, most say they are concerned about losing it. An MSNBC.com survey, which will be covered in detail on Tuesday, found an overwhelming pessimism about privacy, with 60 percent of …