Surveillance Society

Definition

• The monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually for the purpose of influencing, managing, directing, or protecting.

• Most usually involves observation of individuals or groups by government organizations.

Positive? Negative?

• Surveillance is useful to governments and law enforcement to maintain social control, recognize and monitor threats, and prevent/investigate criminal activity.

• Civil rights groups are concerned that mass surveillance will result in limited or non-existent political and/or personal freedoms.

Types of Surveillance

• Computer surveillance• Telephones• Surveillance cameras• Social network analysis• Biometric surveillance• Aerial surveillance• Corporate surveillance

Types of Surveillance

• Human operatives• Satellite imagery• Identification and credentials• RFID and geolocation devices• RFID tagging• Global positioning system• Mobile phones• Surveillance devices• Postal services

Computer Surveillance

• Vast majority of computer surveillance involves monitoring of data and traffic on the Internet.

• Real-time monitoring by Federal law enforcement agencies.

• “Trigger” words or phrases• Visiting certain types of web sites• Communicating with suspicious individuals or

groups

• FBI software - Magic Lantern and CIPAV can be used to gain unauthorized access to data; can be installed physically or remotely

• vanEck phreaking – reads electromagnetic emanations remotely from computing devices to extract data

• Pinwale – stores and indexes large numbers of emails of American citizens and foreigners

Telephones

• Widespread official and unofficial wiretapping• AT&T and Verizon are paid by the FBI to keep

records easily searchable and accessible• Speech-to-text software creates machine-

readable text from intercepted audio• Technology available to US, UK governments to

remotely activate microphones in cell phones• “Multilateration” of cell phone towers used to

collect location data from cell phone use

Surveillance Cameras

• Video cameras used to observe an area• Connected to a recording device or IP network• Automated software organizes digital video

footage into a searchable database• Homeland Security grants in US enable cities

to install cameras and to connect them to central monitoring center

• “Golden Shield Project” – US companies install cameras, facial recognition software in China to track individuals. Goal is to have a picture of every person in China in central database.

• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funding research to link cameras to a central monitoring station in a city

• Identix’s facial recognition software used at Super Bowl 2001

• Traffic cameras in DC used for day-to-day monitoring by DC police

• Trapwire - Closed Circuit TeleVision (CCTV) cameras track people’s movements across city

Social Network Analysis• Maps of social networks based on data from

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, traffic analysis information from phone call records

• These maps are “data mined” to extract personal interests, friendships, affiliations, beliefs, thoughts, activities.

• DARPA, National Security Agency (NSA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) invest in social network analysis.

• AT&T’s programming language “Hancock” sifts through databases of phone call and Internet traffic records.

• Employers report using social networking sites to collect personal data on prospective or current employees.

Biometric Surveillance

• Biometric surveillance measures and analyzes human physical and/or behavioral characteristics for authentication, identification, or screening purposes.

• Fingerprints, DNA, facial patterns, voice recognition, iris scanning, etc.

• Some technology can identify a person up to 500 ft. by facial features.

• Affective computing – computers recognize a person’s emotional state based on analysis of facial expressions, speed of talking, tone and pitch of voice, posture, etc.

• DNA fingerprinting – analyzes major markers in DNA to produce a match

• FBI spending $1 billion to build database for people in US. Computers are in underground facility as large as two football fields.

• Facial thermographs – identify fear, stress

Aerial Surveillance

• Aerial surveillance gathers visual imagery or video from an airborne vehicle.

• Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), helicopter, spy plane, micro-aerial vehicles (MAV), forward-looking infrared devices.

• DHS testing UAVs to patrol US skies• UK building up fleet of UAVs for its police • MAVs can carry Tasers for crowd control or as

weapons

• DARPA programs automate much of the aerial surveillance process.

• Self-piloting UAVs decide who is “suspicious,” monitor them, coordinate with other UAVs, notify human operators in centralized monitoring station

• AI drones increase area that can be continuously monitored, reducing number of human operators

Data Mining and Profiling

• Data mining – application of statistical techniques to discover relationships within data

• Assemble data to create a profile, i.e., a picture of patterns and behavior

• Economic and social transactions create data• Web traffic and online purchases also used for

profiling

• Data analysis used by programs such as ADVISE and TALON to determine whether the person is a military, criminal, or political threat

• ADVISE – Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, Semantic Enhancement R&D program authorized by DHS.

• TALON – Threat and Local Observation Notice, activated after 9/11 by Dept. of Defense; contains info on antiwar groups

• US is planning 43 “fusion centers”, a national network of surveillance centers in over 30 states

• Fusion centers will collect, analyze data from drivers’ licensing centers, hospital records, criminal records, school records, credit bureaus, banks, etc.

• Info will be placed in a centralized database that can be accessed by all centers as well as federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies

Corporate Surveillance

• Monitoring of a person or group’s behavior by a corporation

• Data usually used for marketing purposes• Can be shared with government agencies• Google stores identifying information for each

web search, scans content of Gmail webmail service to tailor advertising

• Many US companies monitor e-mail traffic or workers and/or Internet connections

• Companies use software to block non-work related websites such as offensive sites, game sites, social networking sites, entertainment sites, shopping sites, and sports sites

• Some companies track keystrokes and time spent at keyboards

• Infragard – FBI, DHS, corporations have information-sharing partnership

Human Operatives

• Organizations that have enemies who wish to gather information about the groups’ members or activities face the issue of infiltration

• HUMINT – intelligence gathered by humans rather than by electronic monitoring and data mining

Satellite Imagery

• Local, state, and domestic Federal agencies can access imagery from military intelligence satellites and aircraft sensors

• These devices can penetrate cloud cover, detect chemical traces, and identify objects in buildings and underground bunkers

• Real-time video better than still images from Google Earth

Identification and Credentials

• A card containing an identification number• Some countries have national ID numbers• IDs can be verified by passports, drivers’

licenses, library cards, banking or credit cards• Machine-readable data can create an

electronic trail

RFID and Geolocation Devices

a. RFID Tagging

• Use of very small electronic devices applied or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for identification and tracking using radio waves

• Some companies tag employees, who are monitored while on job

• VeriChip (Applied Digital Solutions), injected under skin, stores personal information in “Global VeriChip Subscriber Registry”

b. Global Positioning System

• In US, police have planted hidden GPS tracking devices in people’s vehicles to monitor their movements

• Some cities require parolees to wear GPS devices to track their movements when they get out of prison

c. Mobile Phones

• Commonly used to collect geolocation data• Multilateration – calculates the differences in

time for a signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone

d. Surveillance Devices

• “Bugs” are hidden electronic devices used to capture, record, and/or transmit data to a receiving party such as a law enforcement agency

• COINTELPRO – US domestic intelligence program bugged homes, office, vehicles of political activists, subversives, criminals

e. Postal Services

• Significance of surveillance of postal system decreasing in favor of Internet and telephone surveillance

• Interception of mail is still option for law enforcement

Controversy over Surveillance

Support

• These tools protect society from terrorists and criminals

• People must become accustomed to having no privacy

• “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, then you don’t have anything to worry about.”

Opposition

• “As long as we do what we’re told, we have nothing to fear.”

• Political activists do not want the government to know their names

• Mass surveillance may make future opposition impossible

• Most people do have things to hide, e.g., job hunter may not want present employer to know this

Opposition: Totalitarianism

• Fear that society is moving toward a state of mass surveillance

• “Laying the bricks one at a time for a police state.”

• Blurring of lines between public and private places

• Surveillance techniques are not equal, e.g., facial recognition requires no cooperation

Opposition: Psychological/Social Effects

• Creates in people a feeling of always being watched, so they become self-policing

• The State can control the populace without having to resort to physical force

Opposition: Privacy

• Civil rights groups include Electronic Privacy Information Center, Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union

• Lawsuits include Hepting v. AT&T, EPIC v. Department of Justice

• The Church Committee investigated domestic intelligence programs such as COINTELPRO

Counter-surveillance, Inverse Surveillance, Sousveillance

• Counter-surveillance – avoiding surveillance or making surveillance difficult

• Inverse surveillance – reversal of surveillance on other individuals or groups, e.g., citizens photographing police

• Sousveillance – inverse surveillance, involving the recording by private individuals, rather than government or corporate entities