Seeking References on Cellphone Surveillance

This post is a bleg:

I’ve been asked to film an interview that will accompany the DVD bonus material for the forthcoming (Steven Spielberg produced) action/thriller movie “Eagle Eye,” which features sophisticated surveillance technologies as one of its plot devices. The topic for the interview will be cellphone surveillance.

I’ve discussed the topic on occassion here, but am seeking any references readers might have at hand that might help me organize my thoughts on the topic.

Thanks.

5 comments

Dissent says:

August 2, 2008 at 10:40 am

Don’t know if this is relevant or of help, but EFF and the ACLU filed a FOIA lawsuit last month concerning cell phone surveillance.
Katie says:

August 2, 2008 at 1:13 pm

Hi Michael,

A couple of chapters of Torin Monahan’s Surveillance and Security might be of interest. Particularly relevant are:

Institute for Applied Autonomy. “Defensive surveillance: Lessons from the Republican National Convention.” Surveillance and security: Technological politics and power in everyday life. New York and London: Routledge, 2006. 167-174.

Lyon, David. “Why where you are matters: Mundane mobilities, transparent technologies, and digital discrimination.” Surveillance and security: Technological politics and power in everyday life. New York and London: Routledge, 2006. 209-224.

We are also working on a non-surveillance approach to capturing data with mobile phones – an approach that relies on participation and informed consent – in the “urban sensing” program at the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (http://research.cens.ucla.edu/projects/2006/Systems/Urban_Sensing/). A paper that describes our approach to privacy is:

Katie Shilton, Jeffrey A. Burke, D Estrin, Mark Hansen, and Mani Srivastava, “Participatory Privacy in Urban Sensing” (2008-04-21). MODUS: International Workshop on Mobile Device and Urban Sensing. Article 2149. http://repositories.cdlib.org/cens/wps/772/

There are several research labs across the country working on participatory and urban sensing (using mobile phones to collect data about people) using more or less surveillance-y models. A search on participatory and urban sensing might also produce some materials of interest for you.

I enjoy the blog!
-Katie
Michael Nagenborg says:

August 17, 2008 at 2:34 am

You might contact Karsten Weber, who did a German project on “Mobile Internet Services and Privacy”. You’ll find the project’s web site at:

http://www.kuwi.euv-frankfurt-o.de/de/lehrstuhl/vs/philosophie/forschung/projekte/weber/mib/index.html

Bye, Michael
Robert says:

August 20, 2008 at 11:55 am

iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era by Mark Andrejevic, specifically Chapter 4 “iCommerce: Interactivity Goes Mobile “ (page 93) addresses your topic. M-commerce integrating cell with location-aware services.

Let me know if this helps. Good luck with the DVD interview.

Best,
Robert
Michael Zimmer says:

August 25, 2008 at 1:34 pm

Thanks to everyone (public and private) for their suggestions. The interview was a surreal experience, and I’ll be sure to share clips once the final edit is out.