"Surveillance, Power, and every day life" Blog post-Melissa Quirk

 Lyon’s article “Surveillance, power, and every day life” focused on the surveillance present all around the world and the growth of surveillance. The main idea of the article focused on surveillance in its different forms, the issues and controversy that follow types of surveillance, and the new technologies that contribute to the transformation of surveillance. One interesting idea and question I pulled from this article, is whether excess surveillance is positive or negative for society?

David Lyon is the Director of the Surveillance Studies Center, Queen's Research Chair in Surveillance Studies, Professor of Sociology and
Professor of Law at Queen’s University, Canada. Lyon has numerous books and publications on the topic of surveillance. This article was geared towards the audience of both professionals and the general public. It came from the Oxford Handbook of Information and communication technologies and came out in 2009. Surveillance is a hot topic in our society today, and Lyon’s investigation, insights, and research contain interesting viewpoints that are widely recognized.

 Lyon points out that surveillance can be more democratic than one would think.  He touches on the idea of “the end of privacy”, and describes that privacy is relative. “The Chinese have little sense of personal space as Westerners understand it, and the Japanese have no word for privacy in their language”(459 LYON).  A “surveillance society” is in place in society today which is much more democratic. This differentiates the surveillance in the western society from the common idea of a higher-power surveillance. Lyon mentions that this new surveillance society takes away the attention of the totalitarian and disciplinary surveillance models.

 Surveillance creates large controversy. Not only is the end of privacy an issue that accompanies surveillance, but “social sorting” as well. Lyon explains how social sorting in government safety surveillance increased and transformed greatly after 9/11. Many innocent people are targeted as “suspects”. Similarly, people are targeted through marketing techniques. Computer surveillance of peoples’ online activities helps companies target ideal customers without customer request. Surveillance’s lead into social sorting and privacy issues creates great controversy, especially as surveillance continues to increase.

 “Dataveillance” is a term Lyon uses to describe the new form of surveillance found in society, which makes surveillance more democratic. The transformation of technology in society creates a new form of surveillance that is not only led by the higher powers, for example government and corporations, but by the public as well. Citizens have numerous simple and advanced technologies that all serve as surveillance technologies. Lyon does a great job at breaking down the idea of surveillance to more than just the feared over-watching power and shows the democratic side. Any person with a cell phone can take a picture and post it for the world to see.

Is surveillance negative or positive? It is difficult to determine this as citizens who are active in surveillance as well. Surveillance keeps society safe and informed, but it also can have great negative consequences