The price of security

Introduction

For all those about to read this document it will inform you of the beginnings of surveillance, starting back with the theories of Foucault on crime and punishment, right up until how this has been influenced and changed with the attacks of September 11th 2001. Much has changed in the many years since the attacks and this is a reflection of this. Even today there are many new forms of surveillance media

and technology that are used regularly within Western societies to control the behaviour of the people that they directly affect and we have now become ‘fully-fledged surveillance societies’. They have become routine within the modern world. All have been taken to extremities since the terrorist attacks, but the precautions taken in the daily life of a commuter or traveller.

The price of security

01 Michel Foucault

Surveillance prior 9/11

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Surveillance prior 9/11[theories of Foucault and beyond]

Within history governments have been using surveillance as a method of control over individuals. One of the early forms of this control was seen in Bentham’s Panopticon which was a type of institutional cylindrical building introduced in the eighteenth century which could have multiple uses and was designed to control and change the behaviour of individuals through mental attributes rather than physical. It achieved this control as ‘it reverses the principles of the dungeon’ and ‘arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see constantly and to recognise immediately.’ Foucault suggests here that the design of the building has been built in such a way to affect the psychological control of the prisoner held within the space by making their actions visible at all times so that they

are constantly aware of own mistakes being made. Essentially forcing self-control onto the prisoner through fear of being seen and caught for misbehaving against the confinements society wanted. The amount of visibility of each person enclosed within the space was key for Bentham’s design in order to subtly modify their mental attitudes and to alter their conscious actions; this effect was analysed in Foucault’s theory. These advances made have been developed throughout the years with the increased need for protection for the society against terrorism. But this has been taken to an extreme in many cases, especially post 9/11, resulting in over used surveillance technology, thus breaking down the fundamental privacy of the individual much more than that seen by Foucault.

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Surveillance prior 9/11

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Surveillance post 9/11[after the events of September the 11th 2001]

Post 9/11 a greater fear of terrorism by the government began to appear and along with this advances of technology were beginning to increase. Their use together brought a greater intrusion by governments, security forces and corporations into the privacy of individuals than has ever been known before. And still there is the hunger for more knowledge, more intrusion, more control resulting in the death of our privacy. Since 9/11 new technology and laws allow a mechanised control of people in a similar way to how the Panopticon building changed to an automatic functioning of power. The individuals held within the building were never really aware if someone was watching or not because of the lack of

visibility into the control tower which gave greater mental control because it was never truly verifiable what was being seen. A similar effect is seen today with the use of surveillance technology because it is unverifiable if someone is watching the data being recorded at that moment in time so mental control is still seen and behavioural changes still take place today. This section continues to look at the acts put in place after the 9/11 attacks to increase surveillance control over threats and what each implies to the privacy of yourself.

Surveillance post 9/11

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In recent years the U.S police have been greater surveillance powers in response to perceived threats from crime, drugs and terrorism. Several legal and criminal events have facilitated a re-evaluation of the balance between police surveillance authority and civil privacy protection. In the post 9/11 era, changes in federal

law, court interpretation of privacy safeguards, and technological advances have expanded the circumstances and methods by which the police may engage in surveillance activities. Surveillance now is viewed very differently to that prior the terrorist attacks and can be viewed from different

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perspectives. Surveillance can be a police activity of gathering information on individuals. It includes human and technological gazing where officials watch the physical movements and activities of people. It can also include the acquisition of personal data. This includes the collection of

biographical, biometric, or transactional data on individuals harvested from personal communications, electronic transactions, identifiers, records,or other documents.

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Surveillance post 9/11

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Surveillance post 9/11

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Surveillance post 9/11

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Communication surveillance[effects on communication and the privacy of it]

Interception and monitoring of individuals’ communications is becoming more widespread, more indiscriminate and more invasive, just as our reliance on electronic communications increases. Nearly all major international agreements on human rights protect the right of individuals to be free from unwarranted surveillance. This guarantee has trickled down into national constitutional or legal provisions protecting the privacy of communications. In most democratic countries, intercepts of oral, telephone and digital communications are initiated by law enforcement or intelligence agencies only after approval by a judge, and only during the investigation of serious crimes. With this being slackened after the 9/11 attack to give the government more extreme and

closer handling of personal data with ease. But as technology changes and increases with its capabilities the government agencies argue that they should be allowed further control of surveillance further within privacy. In many countries, law enforcement agencies have required internet providers and telecommunications companies to monitor users’ traffic. Many of these activities are carried out under dubious legal basis and remain unknown to the public. The secrecy of this communication surveillance that the government employs has been stated only for terrorism purposes but with recent scandals through the media with phone tapping how much of our private lives are they really accessing for other reasons?

The price of security

Conclusion

It is clear to say that surveillance and the scrutiny of people has increased since the introduction of the theory by Foucault but even more so after modern terrorist attacks in the western world. The need for the western world to control globally across a growing population has increased to try minimise these threats and only improvements in communication technology and surveillance machines have allowed this to happen.

The western world has become filled with unverifiable surveillance of each individual within a private and public space and with this media a shift and change of behaviour occurs to better that of society seen today. More importantly these changes have vastly been influenced by 9/11 and have primarily effected travelling around the society the most and the privacy of which to do so.