During my studies in privacy and surveillance theory, I've gained an interest in technologies of obfuscation and resistance. Especially simple ones that nearly any average citizen can implement. TrackMeNot is a great example: a simple Firefox extension that periodically issues…
Tag: Surveillance
Catching Up – Link Dump
I’ve been ridiculously busy lately, and need to quickly catch up on some recent items of note: Scientific American has a nice special issue dedicated to "the future of privacy." Nothing new here for most privacy scholars, but it is…
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.…
Link Dump: January 20, 2008
Holidays, travel, deadlines, start of semester...plenty of excuses for my lapse in blogging. Here are some quick links of important stories I can't provide detailed comments on right now. January 28, 2008 is Data Privacy Day US intelligence agencies are…
Link Dump – November 1, 2007
Blogging has been light due to other duties, but I wanted to point out a few notable items that deserve attention: Twitter appears to be planning to expand the search offerings, allowing users to search for particular terms within others'…
ACLU Sets “Surveillance Clock”
The ACLU launched the “Surveillance Society Clock” to symbolize how we are fast approaching a surveillance society in the United States. The clock is set at six minutes before the “midnight” of such a dark end to privacy: The reality…
FBI’s DCSNet Electronic Surveillance System Exposed
From Wired's Ryan Singel: The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act.…
Read More FBI’s DCSNet Electronic Surveillance System Exposed
Function Creep 101: Surveillance Cameras and Social Norms
Jeremy Hunsinger points to this disturbing report about how a dean of students at a Washington high school thought he saw two girls kissing, so he checked the school's surveillance footage to confirm it. He then proceeded to share what…
Read More Function Creep 101: Surveillance Cameras and Social Norms
Perspectives on Surveillance
Related to my earlier mention of the challenges of relying on Panoptic theory to talk about surveillance, Anders Albrechtslund has posted an informal taxonomy of "21 perspectives on surveillance": The Big Brother perspective Surveillance is a scary way for the…
Debrief: Surveillance Studies Summer Seminar
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…
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