The Panoptic Gaze of Web 2.0: How Web 2.0 platforms act as Infrastructures of Dataveillance

Transcription

1 The Panoptic Gaze of Web 2.0: How Web 2.0 platforms act as Infrastructures of Dataveillance Michael Zimmer Department of Culture and Communication New York University Rhetoric of Web 2.0 Organize and share information Interact within communities Express oneself Empower creativity Democratize media production Celebrate the individual Power of collaboration and social networks 1

2 Externalities 2.0 Increased flow of personal information Aggregation of data across the network Intelligent agents that predict your needs Rise of data mining Placing these tools in hands of all users. Externalities 2.0 Infrastructures of dataveillance Panoptic gaze Search 2.0 Amateur Data Mining P2P Surveillance 2

3 Panoptic Gaze of Dataveillance Panoptic Gaze of Dataveillance 3

4 Panopticon The more constantly the persons to be inspected are under the eyes of the persons who should inspect them, the more perfectly will the purpose of the establishment have been attained. This being impossible, the next thing to be wished for is, that, at every instant, seeing reason to believe as much, and not being able to satisfy himself to the contrary, he [the watched] should conceive himself to be so. Panopticon Perpetual surveillance Minimal effort induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. 4

5 Panoptic Gaze There is no need for arms, physical violence, material constraints. Just a gaze. An inspecting gaze, a gaze which each individual under its weight will end by internalizing to the point that he is his own overseer, each individual thus exercising this surveillance over, and against, himself. A superb formula: power exercised continuously and for what turns out to be a minimal cost. Panoptic Gaze Quintessential disciplinary apparatus of modern, everyday life Home School Workplace Hospital a whole complex mechanism, embracing stricter methods of surveillance [and] more efficient techniques of locating and obtaining information 5

6 Power via Panoptic Gaze Everyday functioning of power Panoptic sort (Gandy) Social sorting (Lyon) Sorting Exercise of power (Foucault; Bowker & Star; Lyon) sorts people into categories, assigning worth or risk, in ways that have real effects on their life-chances. Deep discrimination occurs, thus making sorting not merely a matter of personal privacy, but of social justice Panoptic Gaze of Dataveillance 6

7 Panoptic Gaze of Dataveillance Dataveillance Collection and storage of personal data Systemic use of personal data in investigation or monitoring of individuals Roger Clarke, 1988 Rise of digital dossiers 7

8 Digital Dataveillance Digital networking Data storage Processing power Interconectivity Aggregation Real-time analysis Frequent shopper cards Electronic key cards Intelligent transportation systems RFID tags Biometrics Internet Dataveillance Ideal infrastructure of dataveillance Widespread monitoring and collection of personal information Cookies Spyware DRM Clickstream 8

9 Panoptic Gaze of Dataveillance Panoptic Gaze of Dataveillance 9

10 Panoptic Gaze of Dataveillance Panoptic Gaze of Dataveillance Concrete, material effects Discrimination Social justice Personal freedom [The] impact of dataveillance is a reduction in the meaningfulness of individual actions, and hence in self- reliance and self- responsibility. In general, mass dataveillance tends to subvert individualism and the meaningfulness of human decisions and actions 10

11 Panoptic Gaze of Web 2.0 Search 2.0 Amateur Data Mining P2P Surveillance Panoptic Gaze of Web 2.0 Search 2.0 Amateur Data Mining P2P Surveillance 11

12 Search as Center of Gravity 84% have used a search engine 60 million users send 200 million requests per day (U.S. data) Search engines have become the center of gravity for people s everyday information-seeking activities Search 2.0 Drive towards the perfect search Intuitive results based on past searches and browsing history Perfect recall Like the mind of God 12

13 Dataveillance in Search 2.0 Engage in dataveillance of users online activities Server logs Web cookies User accounts Dataveillance in Search 2.0 Majority of users unaware of dataveillance DOJ v. Google AOL data Some try to avoid dataveillance IP routing Cookie blocking Obfuscation 13

14 Google s Broader Dataveillance Infrastructure Dataveillance across all products & services Intellectual activities across the web as well as the material world Google s Broader Dataveillance Infrastructure General information inquiries: 14

15 Google s Broader Dataveillance Infrastructure Academic research: News & political information: Google s Broader Dataveillance Infrastructure Communication & social networking: 15

16 Google s Broader Dataveillance Infrastructure Personal data : Financial data : Shopping & product interests: Desktop computer files: Google s Broader Dataveillance Infrastructure Internet browsing: 16

17 Google s Broader Dataveillance Infrastructure Over two dozen products & services Interconnected via cookies & Google Accounts Search 2.0 s Gravitational Pull Feedback loop ~ gravitational pull Database of intentions Source of insight into what someone is thinking, not just what that person is doing 17

18 Panoptic Gaze of Search 2.0 Disciplinary power Deleted Gmail messages as evidence Search history neck snap break Storage of records China Brazil Panoptic Gaze of Search 2.0 Panoptic sorting Financial motivations Profile users potential economic value Google knows a lot about the person surfing, especially if they have used personal search or logged into a service such as Gmail 18

19 Panoptic Gaze of Search 2.0 State of consciousness & visibility My goodness, it s my whole personal life I had no idea somebody was looking over my shoulder Tools to circumvent FoxyProxy TrackMeNot Resisting Search 2.0 Expanding the infrastructure of dataveillance: Easy to take at interface value 19

20 Resisting Search 2.0 Collection of personal information becomes a prerequisite of participation oscillates between seemingly rewarding participation and punishing attempts to elect not to divulge personal information Default settings Panoptic Gaze of Search 2.0 Social, political, and technical infrastructure that renders visualization meaningful for the basis of disciplinary social control Emergence of a soft cage of dataveillance Individual freedom Concept of self Social justice 20

21 Panoptic Gaze of Web 2.0 Search 2.0 Amateur Data Mining P2P Surveillance Panoptic Gaze of Web 2.0 Search 2.0 Amateur Data Mining P2P Surveillance 21

22 Don, the Camera Thief Lonelygirl15 22

23 Farrand Field Farrand Field 23

24 Amateur Facial Recognition Riya 24

25 Riya Riya 25

26 Panoptic Gaze of Web 2.0 Amateur Data Mining Peer to Peer Surveillance Search 2.0 Values in technology design 26