Philosophy Critique 2: David Lyon's World Wide Web of Surveillance

"...power is now bound up with an extensive, increasingly integrated, surveillance technology." (Lyon, 92)

David Lyon's article The World Wide Web of Surveillance The Internet and off-world power-flows,  Lyon argues through disciplinary and biopower frameworks how Internet surveillance has become a tool for risk management scenarios and has affected the ways in which we create and modify our ever-changing subjectivities.  He feels that the purpose of online surveillance is to extend power so far that it becomes unnecessary to have actual contact with people.  Rather, the effects of this all encompassing power throughout the Internet and embedded in its codes, create individuals who police themselves.   They produce themselves as specific kinds of people who willingly provide information in constructing their particular subjectivities so that they can be organized, classified, and monitored for prediction purposes.  This is what Lyon refers to as the 'superpanopticon'.  Online surveillance is invisible and like Focault's panopticon, one never knows who exactly is in the guard tower or in this case, what online institutions are following our internet activity. 

To support his ideas Lyon uses three examples of institutions that use online surveillance to manage risks and allow for predictions so that efficiency can flourish.  Firstly, he discusses how employers use online surveillance to monitor employees use of company resources. In citing a US survey of managers he found that, "22 per cent had searched employees' computer files, voice-mail, e-mail and other electronic communications." (Lyon, 96).  Seeing as this is an outdated article, it would be wise to assume that this figure has risen.  Employers want to reduce wasted company resources, time and money so that they are more productive, efficient and thus obtain a greater profit.  Police institutions use online surveillance in a similar fashion to increase their efficiency in catching criminals and reduce crime.  This was exemplified when the FBI undertook 'Operation Innocent', to find paedophiles from the interception of AOL account e-mails.  Lastly, Lyon showed how companies use customer surveillance in the form of data collection by, "collecting, storing, and manipulating information about [consumers] in order to control their behaviors...clustering consumers by social type and location...trying to personalize advertising." (Lyon, 94).  Like the police profile and check records of criminals, companies profile and check the records of their potential customers by looking at their cookies to see past websites visited (the consumers interests), the type of computer they are using (a sign of wealth), and their e-mail address (to send them information regarding their product or service).  This represents a shift away from the physical assessment that was once necessary to draw conclusions on a potential customer's social status and interests to an assessment of their records "compiled in varying situations by diverse professionals and specialists." (Lyon, 100).  This shift has created an invisibility cloak render the individual ignorant of being surveyed and unable to escape it because as Lyon mentioned it starts from the moment we are born with birth certificates followed by driver's licenses, marriage and death certificates. 

This issue has many important implications and potential consequences.  These new forms of surveillance have made it virtually impossible for one to live 'off the grid' and stay unnoticed, even when they have good reasons in doing so.  Thus, many people feel that their privacy is being invaded through online surveillance techniques.  Furthermore, the secretive method of data collection companies use online, has turned the individual into a mere piece of data plunked into the machine of capitalism in hopes to increase profits.  This in turn, works to support the social hierarchy because for companies the categorizing and organizing of individuals is often on a social status scale.  As Lyon puts it on page 102, “Existing inequalities of power and access are reinforced, and, for those who are aware of their digital transparency, fears of being held in an unseen gaze are unrelieved.” 

I am still unclear and bit confused about the process of using search engines to find relevant data and how spiders work.  Thus, i will use my first question in hopes of better understanding this.  What are the consequences of only large corporations being able to afford techniques like data mining?  Another question to promote discussion is, how far do you think is too far?  What should companies and institutions be limited to in their virtual inspection of individuals?

As an aspiring teacher I found Lyon's argument very informative and convincing.  I am much more conscious of my digital footprint and what potential students will see when they run a search and one can never be too careful when using the resources of an employer.  As for his argument, I am not convinced that his representation of the Internet is more reflective of a panoptic or biopower framework, but rather a mélange of the two.  Listed below are supplementary teaching aids and further information on the idea of web surveillance.

Obama's plans for Internet Surveillance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBq8CGwDuxM
 
Wikipedia's take on computer surveillance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_surveillance


Online surveillance re: Canada and other countries
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/06/19/f-internet-cellphone-wiretap-surveillance-law.html

How to get your hands on some web surveillance software, how it is advertised and its features:
http://www.webwatchernow.com/monitoring-software/consumer/rh-keylogger.html?gclid=COKClLrAhqcCFYQUKgodlnsjeg

An article on the surveillance of Skype messages in China
pdf
http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/docs/nytimes/2008-10-01_nytimes_china_skype_surveillance.pdf

Html
http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:1N7P-a0xA4sJ:scholar.google.com/+web+surveillance&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5