Electronic surveillance as means of political control : its increased significance after September 11 and the consequent privacy implications

Abstract

Surveillance processes are at the forefront in the broad array of tools available to governments in the US-led war on terrorism. The implementation of surveillance programs and legislation such as the 2001 US-PATRIOT have generated widespread controversy, with critics complaining that many governments, especially the Bush administration, have exceeded constitutional limits. Governments are turning to the private sector to develop technologies that enhance security that blurred the distinction between government and corporate surveillance. Research and innovation are top priorities of many governments' agendas, which directly involve the defence industry in the formulation of security policies. In certain cases research is driven by the desire to compete with other states whose security research agenda is already considerably high. This has caused a security-industrial complex that poses one of the most problematic challenges to traditional privacy understandings. The privacy lobby's efforts usually converge on a simple surveillance/privacy, or liberty versus security debate. However, with the advancement of modern technology there is more to the 'new' surveillance than data disclosure. The discriminatory potential inherent in many contemporary surveillance processes is more serious than 'simple' privacy breaches, and exacerbated by databasable technologies. Moreover, whereas the privacy lobby usually focuses on breaches associated with intrusive government policies, and to lesser extent corporations, they fail to address equally serious privacy invasions committed by individuals.