Skip to main content
NOT AS PRIVATE AS YOU THINK 
By Emmanuel Koutsouras 
Say you are browsing the internet, maybe reading a movie review, looking through amazon to find a video game you want. Then you decide to go on Instagram sometime later and see an ad for something closely related to that movie review or video game. Social media is arguably the largest collective platform of information that the world has ever seen. There probably is not a single person who is completely off the grid. Social media brings people, ideas, thoughts, facts, and opinions together, in a way that nothing else can do. People put so much of their personal information on the various social media platforms, assuming safety as a given. As is the case with most things in life, nothing is a guarantee, though. The power of surveillance, which when you think about it is truly disturbing is that people whose personal data are collected or observed may not know when or if they are being watched” (Humphreys, 2008).  
 
The process of surveillance is typically carried out across multiple systems, bureaucracies, and social connections all converging into “surveillant assemblages” and embedded within everyday life (Lyon, Haggerty, & Ball, 2012). Social media sites are increasingly resembling such assemblages, as they draw in data on user activity elsewhere on the internet via “cookies” and other tracking mechanisms, this how you see ads for things on social media you were looking up on a different website (like a video game on amazon), and from other sources of information on users, such as retailer loyalty cards, customer surveys, and smartphone location traces. Surveillance is an ancient social process, such as guards for buildings during ancient times, but in the late twentieth century, surveillance became a central organizing social practice, affecting power dynamics, institutional practice, and interpersonal relations. Alongside changing technology, this transformation was driven by factors including increasing managerialism, greater public perception of risk, and political expediency. 
Some factors need to be taken in to account when considering an instance of social media surveillance. Who is carrying it out? A business dealing with customers, or profiling and marketing to potential customers? A community of individuals? What are the power relations between the surveillers and the surveilled? What kinds of data are being collected, and by what means? These might include narrative reports, audiovisual recordings, or activity traces, relating to public, personal, private, sensitive, or intimate situations. In this day in age, all of this now takes place via social media. The rapid development of computing technologies, and the social, political, and economic practices that have shaped and been shaped by this development, is one of the most significant enablers of social media surveillance. Regularly, whole sites or individual profiles are hacked, resulting in private information being released to the public. Recall the mass hacking of iCloud in 2015, in which a number of celebrities had their personal pictures stolen and uploaded to public sites. However, it is not just hackers that can get access to private information. Police investigators will use the law to allow them to collect information from a site, which would otherwise have been considered private information. This is information for everyone. College students need to pay extra attention to this. Your career might be saved.  


References 
Ball, K., Haggerty, K. D., & Lyon, D. (27 mar 2012). Surveillance as biopower. Routledge Handbook of Surveillance Studies. 
Humphreys, L. (2008). Who's Watching Whom? A Field study of Interactive Technology and Surveillance. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-26. Retrieved from Communication and Mass Media Complete database. 

Word count: 536 


Comments

  1. Emmanuel,

    This is a fine topic for your post. It clearly fits with your group's "theme week" and addresses the rise of surveillance regimes within and through digital technology.

    So far, so good.

    However, there are several glaring problems with your post. First, you haven't used our "house style" for these essays – something we've talked about often and at length in class and via email.

    Second, your use of APA reference style is likewise prone to error. Seems you haven't consulted the reference resources we've discussed throughout the semester.

    Third, and most critically, there are several passages that are clearly NOT your own words. Rather, they are taken straight from published work without attribution. This is UNACCEPTABLE and could lead to disciplinary action.

    I suggest you review the university's policy on such matters. After all, if you are violating procedure for this assignment, you may be doing in your other course work. And that could lead to some real problems.

    In sum, you haven't followed directions very closely, despite repeated guidance to do so. What's more, you are flirting with issues of academic integrity that could have serious consequences.

    15/30 pts.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PREVALENCE OF COLORISM IN BLACK AMERICAN MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS

By: Cailey Griffin     It would be extremely difficult to make the argument that the media doesn’t have power. The media has the power to foster a sense of community amongst people by bringing friends and family together to view a television show. The media has the power to regulate the emotions of individuals by creating fictional characters the average viewer will become attached to. The media also has the power to serve as a representation of the different “types” of people in society. In media platforms there’s usually a clear representation of what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a person of color, and what it means to be a person from a particular socioeconomic background. These media representations of different groups and types of people are not always incorrect or negative. In fact, I would argue that media representations are largely positive for certain people. However, the group that seems to consistently get ...

CLASS REPRESENTATION IN BREAKING BAD: THE CASE OF ALBUQUERQUE

By Georges Azouri Breaking Bad was a critically acclaimed television series that aired from 2008-2013. It was show that was based around the life of Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher turned methamphetamine producer. Walter turns to a life of violence and crime due to a cancer diagnosis and the desire to provide for his family. While the show touches on masculinity and similar perspectives of family and providing, it also makes an interesting choice with setting, making Albuquerque, New Mexico and the class representation of the community a central role of the show. Class representation, or rather misrepresentation is a common characteristic of American television and cinema, Breaking Bad is no exception to this. Albuquerque is a city riddled with social problems and struggles with poverty and unemployment, along with crime and drug issues (Cook & Ashutosh, 2018). The real city of Albuquerque is one that struggles from these very real issues. Breaking Bad , ...

A KNEE TO THE GUT: PATRIOTISM

By Ryan Scott On August 14, 2016, during the first NFL preseason game, one particular player decided to stop standing for the National Anthem. The professional athlete was Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback. This was a protest following the slaying of an unarmed, black teen named Trayvon Martin. He was killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator, who viewed Martin as a threat for his apparent image. This was a major sign of racial profiling and violence that is a reoccurring issue in our nation. Too frequently, unarmed African Americans are killed by police officers in disproportionate numbers. Nonetheless, most of these unfortunate killings have included no repercussions. Colin Kaepernick firstly went unnoticed the first two weeks of the preseason, and then it sparked a movement. In week three of the preseason, on August 26, 2016, he continued to sit out during the National Anthem and the uproar began. This turned into a prolonged debate about pr...