SEATTLE — Surveilling the surveillers. It’s an idea that Number 6, the nameless hero of the classic British TV show The Prisoner, would have loved.
In an attempt to establish equity in the world of surveillance, participants at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Seattle this week took to the streets to ferret out surveillance cameras and turn the tables on offensive eyes taking their picture.
Following wearable computing guru Steve Mann into a downtown Seattle shopping mall, about two dozen conference attendees, some of them armed with handheld cameras, snapped photos of smoked-glass ceiling domes in Nordstrom and Gap stores, which may or may not have contained cameras.
Companies have been known to install empty camera domes to save money while giving the impression of surveillance.
The idea of surveillance that’s powerful even if it’s not actually present was in line with the theme of this year’s CFP conference — the Panopticon. The Panopticon, a model prison envisioned by philosopher Jeremy Bentham, would feature guard towers using mirrors that allowed the guards to see the prisoners without being seen themselves. This would leave the inmates uncertain as to when they were actually being watched.
But the mere possibility that someone might be watching would be enough to alter their behavior, ensuring, in the words of French philosopher Michel Foucault, that the effect of surveillance would be ongoing even if the surveillance itself wasn’t. The mere perception of power would “render its actual exercise unnecessary.”
Full article at Surveillance Works Both Ways.
Posted by Xiaoge 
