Exploring the Culture of Surveillance: A Qualitative Study in Portugal

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37467/gka-revtechno.v10.2871

Keywords:

Culture of Surveillance, Surveillance Imaginaries and Practices, Surveillance Awareness, Surveillance, Social Perceptions, Resisting Surveillance

Abstract

By following the theoretical framework of the surveillance culture this article aims to detail the surveillance imaginaries and practices that individuals have, capturing differences and social inequalities among respondents. We present an in-depth look into surveillance awareness, exploring subjective meanings and the varying awareness regarding commercial, governmental, and lateral surveillance. Furthermore, a detailed analysis is made on how individuals sometimes welcome surveillance, expanding on the cost-benefit trade-off, and detailing it on three distinct trade-offs: the privacy vs. commercial gains/rewards, the privacy vs. convenience and, the privacy vs. security. Lastly, we present a section that explores and analyzes resistance to surveillance.

Author Biography

  • Maria João Simões, University of Beira Interior, Portugal. Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA.UMinho) and LabCom.

    Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology,
    University of Beira Interior

References

Acquisti, A., Brandimarte, L., & Loewenstein, G. (2015). Privacy and human behavior in the age of information. Science, 347(6221), 509–514. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa1465

Acquisti, A., Taylor, C., & Wagman, L. (2016). The economics of privacy. Journal of Economic Literature, 54(2), 442–492. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.54.2.442

Andrejevic, M. (2004). Reality TV: The work of being watched. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

Andrejevic, M. (2005). The work of watching one another: Lateral surveillance, risk, and governance. Surveillance & Society, 2(4), 479–497. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v2i4.3359

Augusto, F. R., & Simões, M. J. (2017). To see and be seen, to know and be known: Perceptions and prevention strategies on Facebook surveillance. Social Science Information, 56(4), 596–618. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018417734974

Ball, K., Di Domenico, M. L., & Nunan, D. (2016). Big Data Surveillance and the Body-subject. Body and Society, 22(2), 58–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X15624973

Chandler, J. (2009). Privacy versus national security clarifying the trade-off. In Lessons from the identity trail: Anonymity, privacy and identity in a networked society (pp. 121–138). New York: Oxford University Press.

Charitsis, V. (2019). Survival of the (data) fit: Self-surveillance, corporate wellness, and the platformization of healthcare. Surveillance & Society, 17(1–2), 139–144. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v17i1/2.12942

Crawford, K., Lingel, J., & Karppi, T. (2015). Our metrics, ourselves: A hundred years of self-tracking from the weight scale to the wrist wearable device. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(4–5), 479– 496. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549415584857

Dinev, T., Massimo, B., Hart, P., Christian, C., & Vincenzo, R. (2006). Internet users’ privacy concerns and beliefs about government surveillance: An exploratory study of differences between Italy and the United States. Journal of Global Information Management, 14(4), 57–93. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4018/jgim.2006100103

Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Books.

Ganascia, J. (2010). The generalized sousveillance society. Social Science Information, 49(3), 489–507. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018410371027

Gandy, O. H. (1989). The surveillance society: Information technology and bureaucratic social control. Journal of Communication, 39(3), 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1989.tb01040.x

Giroux, H. A. (2015). Totalitarian paranoia in the post-orwellian surveillance state. Cultural Studies, 29(2), 108–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2014.917118

Gu, J., Xu, Y. (Calvin), Xu, H., Zhang, C., & Ling, H. (2017). Privacy concerns for mobile app download: An elaboration likelihood model perspective. Decision Support Systems, 94, 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2016.10.002

Haggerty, K. D. (2006). Tear down the walls: On demolishing the panopticon. In Theorizing Surveillance: The panopticon and beyond (pp. 23–45). Portland: Willan Publishing.

Haggerty, K. D., & Ericson, R. V. (2000). The surveillant assemblage. British Journal of Sociology, 51(4), 605–622. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071310020015280

Holm, N. (2009). Conspiracy theorizing surveillance: Considering modalities of paranoia and conspiracy in surveillance studies. Surveillance and Society, 7(1), 36–48. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v7i1.3306

Hong, S. H. (2017). Criticising surveillance and surveillance article critique: Why privacy and humanism are necessary but insufficient. Surveillance and Society, 15(2), 187–203. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v15i2.5441

Howe, D. C. (2015). Surveillance countermeasures: Expressive privacy via obfuscation. Datafied Research, 4(1), 88–98. https://doi.org/10.7146/aprja.v4i1.116108

Jansson, A. (2012). Perceptions of surveillance: Reflexivity and trust in a mediatized world (the case of Sweden). European Journal of Communication, 27(4), 410–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323112463306

Kennedy, H., Elgesem, D., & Miguel, C. (2015). On fairness: User perspectives on social media data mining. Convergence, 23(3), 270–288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856515592507

Lupton, D. (2014). Self-tracking Cultures: Towards a Sociology of Personal Informatics. Proceedings of the 26th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures: The Future of Design, 77–86. https://doi.org/10.1145/2686612.2686623

Lyon, D. (2014). Surveillance, Snowden, and Big Data: Capacities, consequences, critique. Big Data & Society, 1(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951714541861

Lyon, D. (2015). The Snowden stakes: challenges for understanding surveillance today. Surveillance and Society, 13(2), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v13i2.5363

Lyon, D. (2018). The culture of surveillance: Watching as a way of life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Lyon, D. (2019). Surveillance capitalism, surveillance culture and data politics. In Data Politics (pp. 64–77). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315167305-4

Mann, S., & Ferenbok, J. (2013). New media and the power politics of sousveillance in a surveillance-dominated world. Surveillance and Society, 11(1–2), 18–34. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v11i1/2.4456

Mann, S., Nolan, J., & Wellman, B. (2003). Sousveillance: inventing and using wearable computing devices for data collection in surveillance environments. Surveillance and Society, 1(3), 331–355. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v1i3.3344

Manokha, I. (2018). Surveillance, panopticism, and self-discipline in the digital age. Surveillance and Society, 16(2), 219–237. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v16i2.8346

Mardisalu, R. (2019). VPN Statistics and Usage. Retrieved September 15, 2019, from The Best VPN website: https://thebestvpn.com/vpn-usage-statistics

Marwick, A. E. (2012). The public domain: Social surveillance in everyday life. Surveillance & Society, 9(4), 378–393. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v9i4.4342

Marwick, A. E., & Boyd, D. (2010). I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society, 13(1), 114–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444810365313

Marx, G. T. (2015). Surveillance studies. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 23(2), 733–741. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.64025-4

Marx, G. T. (2016). Windows into the soul: Surveillance and society in an age of high technology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Park, Y. J., Chung, J. E., & Shin, D. H. (2018). The Structuration of Digital Ecosystem, Privacy, and Big Data Intelligence. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(10), 1319–1337. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764218787863

Pavone, V., & Degli Esposti, S. (2010). Public assessment of new surveillance-oriented security technologies: Beyond the trade-off between privacy and security. Public Understanding of Science, 21(5), 556–572. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662510376886

Penney, J. (2016). Chilling effects: online surveillance and wikipedia use. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 31(1), 1–55. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2769645

Pridmore, J. (2012). Consumer surveillance: Context, perspectives and concerns in the personal information economy. In K. Ball, K. D. Haggerty, & D. Lyon (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies (pp. 321–329). New York: Routledge.

Rogers, R. (2008). Consumer Technology after Surveillance Theory. In J. Kooijman, P. Pisters, & W. Strauven (Eds.), Mind the Screen: Media Concepts According to Thomas Elsaesser (pp. 288–296). Amsterdam: University Press.

Simões, M. J., & Jerónimo, N. (2018). Rear window - transparent citizens versus political participation. In A. R. Saetnan, I. Schneider, & N. Green (Eds.), The Politics of Big Data: Big Data, Big Brother? (p. 358). New York.

Solove, D. J. (2011). Nothing to hide: The false tradeoff between privacy and security. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Steinfeld, N. (2017). Track me, track me not: Support and consent to state and private sector surveillance. Telematics and Informatics, 34, 1663–1672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.07.012

Stoycheff, E., Liu, J., Xu, K., & Wibowo, K. (2018). Privacy and the panopticon: online mass surveillance’s deterrence and chilling effects. New Media and Society, 21(3), 602–619. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818801317

Turow, J., Feldman, L., & Meltzer, K. (2005). Open to exploitation: American shoppers online and offline. Pennsylvania: Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Widener, P. (2016). E-fears, e-risks and citizen-intelligence: The impacts of surveillance on resistance and research. Surveillance and Society, 14(2), 277–285. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v14i2.6271

Winegar, A. G., & Sunstein, C. R. (2019). How much is data privacy worth? A preliminary investigation. Journal of Consumer Policy, 42(3), 425–440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-019-09419-y

Wottrich, V. M., Reijmersdal, E. A. Van, & Smit, E. G. (2018). The privacy trade-off for mobile app downloads: The roles of app value, intrusiveness, and privacy concerns. Decision Support Systems, 106, 44–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2017.12.003

Zaia, M. (2019). Exploring consciousness: The online community’s understanding of mobile technology surveillance. Surveillance and Society, 17(3–4), 533–549. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v17i3/4.11934

Zurawski, N. (2011). Local practice and global data: Loyalty cards, social practices, and consumer surveillance. The Sociological Quarterly, 52(4), 509–527. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2011.01217.x

Downloads

Published

2021-07-23

Issue

Section

Research articles

How to Cite

Exploring the Culture of Surveillance: A Qualitative Study in Portugal. (2021). TECHNO REVIEW. International Technology, Science and Society Review Revista Internacional De Tecnología, Ciencia Y Sociedad, 10(1), 79-95. https://doi.org/10.37467/gka-revtechno.v10.2871