Surveillance of all kinds
What does the word 'surveillance' mean to you? It's the act of monitoring someone or something. Before, it was mostly used to prevent crime from happening. It was also used as a way to keep track of anyone who was capable of criminal activity. But nowadays, surveillance is being used in other areas such as health care. Businesses and government offices even when it doesn't involve crime anymore. this is surveillance now serves multiple purposes. so whether someone needs to keep security at the workplace, or monitor the environment in a city surveillance is used.
HOW REGULAR SURVEILLANCE WORKS AS AS FUNCTIONAL TOOL : So how does surveillance work everywhere else it may get a bad rap with the majority, but it can actually used as a functional tool. A good example of this is when it's used for public health reasons. When done right it can keep track of the general health status of the public. Citizens can be informed of whether a virus is coming especially in light of the corona virus , structures can be set up and doctors would be on alert preparing the public, of such future outbreaks as well as learning from such health crisis. The cdc = centers for disease control and prevention, can even have a database of several factors that could usher in new health standards across the nation. The citizenry can have some assurance if future assistance is needed in case of another health crisis. In everyday surveillance you can watch your home as well as your car and even spy on a an unfaithful partner from the comfort of your cell phone. Thus minimizing the harm of actually putting yourself there in the actual area. This day and age surveillance can be used as a regular tool for the sake of family and friends to check on their current welfare. By making sure their safety is maintained.
THREE SPECIAL KINDS OF SURVEILLANCE : There are different kinds of surveillance everywhere. They may be done in different forms but the same principle is intact. From this book you will learn the three kinds which are used worldwide here they are :
CORPORATE SURVEILLANCE :
corporate surveillance is the type of surveillance that deals primarily with a corporations way of handling it's internal affairs and consumers. This where security is of vital importance because many things such as the intellectual property IP and classified information, can be used against a corporation when there not handled properly. A good example of when a product is launching and the handling of this information isn't allowed to be disclosed to anyone, without corporate surveillance there is chance this info can be leaked. So it can bring harm to the corporation so the competitor may try to copy the information. It may also be used by an individual who could possibly sell the secrets to another corporation or to a dark market source. Corporate will also help the secrets from falling into the wrong hands. Another way corporate surveillance is used when it's monitoring a corporation establishments. CCTV cameras are placed in various area's of a mall or restricted area's are marked for safety in other businesses. This can tell the company a lot because this will give the data to determine what is the best course of action to take when there are parts to be improved upon or when potential threats abound. Even though corporate surveillance does have it's flaws. It causes consumers to be concerned because there is data being gathered about them. Which causes the average individual to question how does surveillance encroach on a person's freedoms and what laws exist to protect him currently. That in of itself is a slippery slope due to the power of the tech companies and their powerful influence on governments across the globe, since this is the information age. That's why corporate surveillance as all surveillance is loaded with flaws as well as shortcomings as a complete system. No system is complete or safe especially concerning the human factor is involved.
LAW ENFORCEMENT SURVEILLANCE : Law enforcement surveillance is the type that is used when the police ,military, monitor people and places to ensure safety. Citizens feel that law enforcement have to much power with this type of surveillance, and they feel like their rights are violated with no sense of recourse which in reality is somewhat accurate . Since laws concerning surveillance are built on old systems and old formats. And today's technology is moving so fast that the laws cannot keep up . Not to mention the lawmakers having no clue of the actual power behind this technology. Since congress usually consists of older to old men whereas they don't fully comprehend this technology. And the people creating such technology are young and free thus destroying old infrastructures and systems. In which they cannot relate to. Napster completely transformed the record business overnight when they offered free downloadable music . Steve jobs continued on in that same vein when Apple offered complete music on a simple phone, full albums tailored to the consumer taste. And Netflix not only bankrupted Blockbuster but changed the whole media landscape in the process by offering a superior delivery business model which caters to the leisure of the consumer. Three basic ideas have changed the world of technology, not to mention there are much more sprayed across many dying industries and companies completely making them obsolete. The same with the surveillance model, law enforcement become much more ahead of the curve concerning technology since the average consumer wont have access to the same level of police technology. Yet at the same token consumer tech and access to it has vastly expanded by comparison to recent decades prior. An example of the fearful consumer extends from examples like such, police would and have implemented trackers into citizens phones by impersonating phone towers , so when a call is made the police would know where the caller is through sophisticated phone triangulation software. And the consumer would never have known. Several years ago amazon would partner with several police departments throughout certain states as a test run for Amazon's ring doorbell home security systems. Initially Amazon did not want the public to know of this joint venture. For which they would suffer a backlash of negativity from the public. Now the system is a success deepening Amazon's hold on the tech industry as one of it's guiding forces. Law enforcement has kept safety up and running this was the case when two police drones in Virginia saved a woman's life. What happened was the woman was about to commit suicide with a revolver because she was financially broke. Thankfully the drones were able to check out where the woman was what she was doing and save her. If the cops were there they might have possibly been involved in something that could have escalated to a gunfight. Just like corporate law enforcement this keeps tabs on the officers as well such as body cameras ,dash cam and other such tools not only to protect the citizen but the officer as well.
SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM :
Finally we get to what this book is about ,this type of surveillance is a concept coined by professor Shoshana Zuboff back in 2014 it became known to the world when she exposed it in THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM. This book is a scholarly beast at clocking in at 704 pages, this is not your normal read. This holds a seriousness as a medical textbook. Brilliantly written and illuminating at it's core. She defines it as a new economic order that claims human experience as free raw material for hidden commercial practices for extraction, prediction and sales. To put it simply surveillance capitalism is where massive surveillance is conducted in the online world to gather data about it's user's and use it for a variety of goals such as mapping outcomes, analyzing predictions, and gaining profit. This is equally done by google, facebook, apple, microsoft, and many other tech companies to many to name here. Before Shoshana Zuboff defined surveillance capitalism. Many had wondered if online data was already safe nothing much was said when bytes upon bytes of data started to appear online. When controversies about online privacy started to become an issue that's when she would explore this subject at deeper levels years before the public would know what is going on. Back in early 2014 the C.I.A. would form a secretive joint venture temporarily called shadow force. In which the CIA would grant a 600 million dollar contract that would reportedly have amazon build a cloud computing service, that would provide all 17 u.s. intelligence agencies unprecedented access to an untold number of computers for various on demand computing storage, analytic collaboration and other services. On amazon's servers will be information on millions of people that the intelligence community has no right to have access to ,as if the public will have the faintest idea as to what could actually happen between big government , and a equally big tech company. Although there will be safeguards at the outset but at the deepest level what could be goin on whereas senators and congress could be kept in the dark. But that is on another scale totally beyond the average consumer. But this book zero's in what makes surveillance capitalism a dark tool. So this is a very narrow approach on many levels to explain this complex yet varied subject with which the average consumer has no idea about. Once you understand the scope of this technological monster you will see surveillance capitalism differently.
