Study Notes on Social Media Surveillance

Introduction to Privacy and Surveillance

  • Privacy is not unique to digital media; historically tied to media.

  • Definitions: Privacy as the right to be left alone or control over personal information (Warren and Brandeis).

Characteristics of Surveillance

  • Surveillance defined as systematic data gathering for management or behavior influence.

  • Foucault's work indicates it's linked to control structures in society.

  • Debates exist around surveillance being structural (critical) vs. individualistic (privacy).

Evolution in the Context of Digital Media

  • Rise of computers in the 1970s led to national data protection laws.

  • Concept of 'new surveillance' emerged alongside advancements in computing.

  • Internet boom in the 1990s led to neglect of privacy concerns, seen as outdated.

Social Media Surveillance Characteristics

  • Social media enables collaborative identity construction and monitoring of social networks.

  • Surveillance uses visible and measurable social ties with constantly changing interfaces.

  • Profiles combine data from various social contexts leading to 'social convergence.'

Table 22.1 - Qualities of Internet Surveillance

  • Global surveillance at distance

  • Real-time data transmission and surveillance

  • High-speed data and surveillance availability

  • Growing storage capacity for surveillance data

  • Easy duplication of surveillance data

  • Multimedia and multimodal surveillance capabilities

  • Visibility of personal social networks

  • Enhanced tracking of social links

  • Economic exploitation of users' contributions

  • Enclosure and restrictions on sharing information

  • Speculative surveillance due to decontextualization

  • Potential misinterpretation of data

  • Surveillance of personal identities and emotions

  • Ubiquitous surveillance due to constant Internet availability

Implications of Social Media Surveillance

  • Integration of diverse social activities into one profile for complex data mapping.

  • Questions arise about sociality and power structures in online interactions.

Empirical Studies of Online Privacy and Surveillance

  • Economy: Social media leads to user data commodification. User engagement turns into economic value (watching as working).

  • State: Police use social media for investigations; collaboration between corporations and state for surveillance.

  • Everyday Life: Social media transparency can expose police conduct but also poses ethical surveillance challenges.

Conclusion

  • Addressing privacy and surveillance issues requires critical social theory and empirical research on the societal context.

  • Important to discern power imbalances in surveillance practices and advocate for better protections.