T215B

Communication and
information technologies (II)

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Session 2
Block 4
Protecting and prying 1
Session Outline
• Part 3: Privacy and surveillance
• Introduction
• Defining privacy, surveillance and the surveillance
society

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• Opportunities for surveillance
• Identity and identity theft
• Large scale database systems

2
1. Introduction [1]
• Surveillance Society Debate: What are your reactions
when you see the signs below?

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3
2. Defining privacy, surveillance and
the surveillance society [1]
• What is meant by the terms ‘privacy’ and ‘surveillance’?
• Conceptions of privacy are influenced by context and
environment so it follows that any definitions of privacy
should be regarded as fluid.

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2. Defining privacy, surveillance and
the surveillance society [2]
• Privacy comes in many forms, relating to what it is that one
wishes to keep private:
• privacy as confidentiality: we might want to keep certain
information about ourselves, or certain things that we do, secret
from everyone else or selected others;

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• privacy as anonymity: we might want some of our actions (even
those done in public) not to be traceable to us as specific
individuals;
• privacy of identity: the right to keep one’s identity unknown for
any reason, including keeping one’s individual identity separate
from a public persona or official role;

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2. Defining privacy, surveillance and
the surveillance society [3]
• privacy as self-determination: we might consider some of our
behavior private in that it is ‘up to us’ and no business of others
(where those ‘others’ may range from the state to our
employers);
• privacy as freedom to be ‘left alone’, to go about our business

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without being checked on: this includes freedom of expression, as
we might wish to express views that the government, our
employers, or our neighbors might not like to hear;
• privacy as control of personal data: we might desire the right to
control information about us – where it is recorded, who sees it,
who ensures that it is correct, and so on.

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2. Defining privacy, surveillance and
the surveillance society [4]
• These various forms of privacy can potentially clash with a number
of values. Each has to be weighed against one or more of the
following:
• accountability for personal or official actions;
• the need for crime prevention and detection and for security
generally: our desire to be able to engage in our personal affairs

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without anyone knowing is always offset against our desire for
criminals not to have the same opportunity;
• efficiency, convenience and speed in access to goods or services:
this relates particularly to services accessed online, where access
might depend on entering personal, identifying information;
• access to services that depend on fulfilling specific criteria such as
being above an age limit or having a disability, or being the genuine
owner of a particular credit card;
• the need to monitor health risks, such as outbreaks of infectious
diseases;
• public and legal standards of behavior which might weigh against 7
some personal choices.
2. Defining privacy, surveillance and
the surveillance society [5]
• Surveillance and the Surveillance Society: the growth of
bureaucracy led by developments in computer and
communication technologies was the catalyst for the growth
of surveillance.
• Surveillance: purposeful, routine, systematic and focused

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attention paid to personal details, for the sake of control,
entitlement, management, influence or protection.
• Benefits drawn from surveillance:
• progress towards efficient administration
• benefit for the development of Western capitalism and the
modern nation-state
• reduced labour intensivity and increased reliability and volume of 8
work that could be accomplished
2. Defining privacy, surveillance and
the surveillance society [6]
• Surveillance potential and actual drawbacks:
• risks inherent in large-scale computer systems;
• the potential for corruption of power;
• inequalities of access and opportunity;

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• the decline in trust, principally between the state and the
individual, but also within more personal relationships;
• and the fear that the use of surveillance discourages the
exploration of other solutions and other issues.

• For more discussion about this topic, read the extract

from “A Report on the Surveillance Society,” reprinted as
Reading 4 in the Block 4 Document Book. 9
2. Defining privacy, surveillance and
the surveillance society [7]
• Activity 3.5 (exploratory): Some examples of mass
surveillance systems are speed cameras, street surveillance
systems, and the collection and storage of records made by
internet service providers (ISPs). How do these fit with the
characteristics of purposeful, routine, systematic and focused?

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• Sol:
• Purposeful: each of the examples have stated (or perceived)
goals, so they can be considered purposeful. These goals are road
safety, crime reduction and national intelligence respectively.
Speed cameras also have a role in controlling traffic speed.
• Routine: The surveillance resulting from the three examples
occurs during the normal course of our daily business: driving,
being in public areas and connecting to the internet. Thus they 10
can be considered as routine.
2. Defining privacy, surveillance and
the surveillance society [8]
• Activity 3.5 (Sol – Cont.):
• Systematic: the examples are targeted on particular groups of
people: all those who drive a vehicle in designated locations; all
those who are present in designated locations; all those who use
the services of ISPs. Therefore can be considered to be

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systematic.
• Focused: The three examples are focused in that each collects
and stores data that refers to identifiable persons.

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3. Opportunities for surveillance [1]
• This section is concerned with identifying the opportunities
for surveillance offered by modern technology through its
devices and services.
• The introduction of a video surveillance system using closed
circuit television (CCTV) in 1961 at a London train station

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heralded the arrival of what is now one of the most ubiquitous
and visible privacy-affecting technologies.
• Over the last ten years, government expenditure on CCTV has
risen markedly.

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3. Opportunities for surveillance [2]
• There are three features of this form of surveillance that create a
series of social, political and technical dilemmas:
• First, it is citizens in public spaces who are the objects of surveillance.
This threatens to destroy the ‘public privacy’ previously enjoyed by
anonymous citizens in a public space.
• Second, citizens are in no position to agree to or reject surveillance.

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This limits the extent of the freedom of citizens to go about their
lawful business without being observed and monitored. It also
extends the capacity for agencies and institutions to subject a section
of the public realm to surveillance for their own purposes.
• Third, the development of surveillance systems has changed what
can be gleaned from observations of individuals. As well as recording
the presence of and recognizing individuals, surveillance systems
now offer the possibility of evaluating and making inferences about a
person’s actions and intentions, drawing on stereotypes and profiling
methods. 13
3. Opportunities for surveillance [3]
• Concerns also arise from the shift to digital technology,
which has enabled two significant developments:
• First, digital recording capacities mean that images can be stored
indefinitely, searched digitally, analyzed, reproduced and
manipulated with increasing ease.

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• Second, images from any camera can be made available instantly
to anyone with the capacity to receive data in this form ➔ It
cannot be guaranteed that surveillance images will remain
private, or will not be altered, misused or manipulated.
• A development of a different kind is the addition of
microphones to many cameras, so that they can eavesdrop on
the conversations of people as they are filmed. Both kinds of
development mean that surveillance has become increasingly 14
invasive.
3. Opportunities for surveillance [4]
• The term CCTV is now for the most part a misleading label!
• Modern surveillance systems are no longer ‘closed-circuit’,
and increasing numbers of surveillance systems use
networked, digital cameras rather than CCTV.
• The continued use of the term is an indicator of a general lack

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of awareness of the nature of contemporary surveillance, and
disguises the kinds of purposes, dangers and possibilities of
current technologies.

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3. Opportunities for surveillance [5]
• Many modern surveillance systems can instead be thought of
as ‘public webcams’.
• Although most surveillance cameras do not broadcast to the
Web, and are therefore not webcams as such, the way that
they function makes them very similar to webcams.

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• The power of public webcams calls for greater attention to the
impact of digitization on privacy in the public realm, and an
end to complacency associated with outdated perceptions
that belong in the CCTV era.

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3. Opportunities for surveillance [6]
• Surveillance Advancements:
• RFID (Radio Frequency Identification): tags that are small
wireless devices that provide unique identifiers which can be read
by remote sensors.
• The original aim of these small low cost devices was to enable

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companies to keep track of stock.
• However, there are RFID tags which can be ‘active’ – they emit
signals over a greater range and can be sensed remotely – and so
concerns over their use have grown.
• These tiny devices are inconspicuous, meaning that an individual
might not be aware that there is an RFID tag in a product they
have bought which is transmitting information, nor will they be
aware of who is able to pick up the data. 17
3. Opportunities for surveillance [7]

• Surveillance Advancements (Cont.):

• Near-Field Communications (NFC): is a specific kind of RFID
technology, that is used for short-range wireless interactions and
extends the capabilities of contactless technologies such as RFID

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to allow two-way initiation of communications.
• For example devices embedded with NFC chips can be used as
payment devices; payment being made by passing the device (a
phone, for example) over a reader.
• WiMAX (wireless interoperability for microwave access –
standard implementation of IEEE 802.16 wireless networks):
alternative to other means of networking such as Ethernet or
cable and minimal disruptive influence in terms of deploying
identity-based applications. This is likely to be true of other global 18
connection technologies, such as 4G and 5G.
3. Opportunities for surveillance [8]
• Surveillance Advancements (Cont.):
• Zigbee: refers to a set of specifications for wireless sensor
networks, an application of which could be a network of sensors
used for home automation which uses sensors to control
switches on household devices.

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• Zigbee and other wireless sensor networks create new opportunities
for recording data about movements within a particular space
• Biometric: technologies that use biometric data to identify and
authenticate individuals, often for local authentication of a
person.
• Voice-based interaction: has the ability to execute transactions
securely over voice channels of all kinds.
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4. Identity and identity theft [1]
• Increasingly, commercial transactions require proof of a
person’s identity.
• Opening an account and applying for credit, goods or services
will require you to verify that you are who you say you are,
without which you may be denied access.

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• Proof of identity often involves a collection of small pieces of
information:
• Name
• Address
• Father (or mother’s) maiden name
• National Insurance number
• Date of birth 20
4. Identity and identity theft [2]
• For documentary proof of identity you may be asked to supply
a passport, driving license, or birth certificate
• These documents and the confirmation provided by
additional personal details therefore form the basis on which
the unique identity can be established.

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• As such, they become an attractive target for those wishing to
impersonate and fraudulently obtain goods and services (such
as access to the bank accounts) using the identity.
• Unlike biometric data such as iris scans, fingerprints and
facial features, documentary evidence is much easier to steal
or forge, and personal details much easier to obtain.
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4. Identity and identity theft [3]

• ‘Identify theft industry’ is becoming more organized.

• There are people who specialize in personal information
harvesting, searching online looking for likely targets,
amassing their details and passing them on to the second

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group.
• This second group are the identity fraudsters, who use these
packaged identities to fraudulently acquire credit cards, loans,
fake passports, driving licenses, and benefit claims

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4. Identity and identity theft [4]
• But while this all sounds very scary in theory, does it really
happen in practice? How easy is it to acquire enough
information about you to start to steal your identity?
• The answers are yes, and ‘very easy’ – if you know where to
look!!

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• In contrast to the average consumer who will be fairly ignorant
of where their personal information is online, the average
identity fraudster knows exactly where to find you.

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4. Identity and identity theft [5]
• This ability to intrude into an individual’s life using
information found solely online is unprecedented and is a
relatively recent phenomenon.
• Five years ago citizens did not face this situation.
• So what has changed in this period?

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• The first is the rise of Web 2.0. Companies such as MySpace,
Facebook, blogging sites, YouTube and Friends Reunited began
to emerge in 2002 after the ‘dotcom crash’ of the preceding
couple of years.
• This new wave differs from the first-generation Web 1.0
companies (Amazon, eBay and Egg) by being driven primarily by
user generated content.
• This means that the bulk of the content that makes up a Web
2.0 website is contributed by its individual users rather than the 24
company itself.
4.1 Profiling [1]
• Profiling is the practice of analysing a set of data about an
individual in order to identify that individual as fitting into a
particular category.
• Frequently this is done for the purpose of targeted advertising
which, though it may be irritating, is largely benign. It’s also

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carried out as a protection mechanism.
• Profiling becomes more sinister when it is used to make
decisions that provide benefits to one set of people whilst
denying them to others.

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4.1 Profiling [2]
• Profiling can also lead to differences in how customers
are dealt with
• Those who have been profiled as potential high spenders could
receive enhanced service to the detriment of those who haven’t.
• Call centers now rank order customer accounts according

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to their relative spend
• The higher the spend, the greater a customer’s value is to the
organisation, and so when these customers call for service, they
are routed into shorter queues and answered by more skilled
employees.

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4.2 Identity theft [1]
• Identity theft is the act of deliberately assuming
the identity of another person for fraudulent
purposes.
• Usually this is for some financial gain such as

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obtaining money from the victim’s bank account,
or obtaining goods, services or credit in their
name.
• The extent of identity theft is difficult to assess
as it is classified and measured in different ways
by different sources. 27
 4.2 Identity theft [2]

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28
5. Large scale database systems [1]
• Some of the UK government’s large-scale electronic
databases:
• electoral registers
• birth
•

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marriage and death registers
• planning applications
• National Health Service
• Who decides what data should be collected and for what
purpose it should be used?
• Who controls how data is kept and for how long, and who
has access to it?
• Who regulates and checks those responsible? 29
5. Large scale database systems [2]
• In 2008, the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd commissioned
the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) to
investigate the role, performance and security of public sector
databases in use in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• The result is the report Database State, published in February

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2009, claimed to be ‘the most comprehensive map of Britain’s
database state currently available’ (Shutt, 2009).
• The report examined a total of 46 public sector databases
that hold (or are planned to hold) identifiable personal
information either on the majority of British citizens or on
significant minority groups (for example schoolchildren).
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5. Large scale database systems [3]
• The main focus of the report was to assess each of the
databases examined in terms of their effectiveness, privacy
and legality, and to classify them according to a ranking of red,
amber, or green, defined below.
• Of the 46 databases examined, the report ranked only 6 as

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green, 29 as amber and the remaining 11 as red.

➔ What does that mean ??

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5. Large scale database systems [4]
• Traffic Light System
• green – the underlying system appears basically sound, without
any insuperable legal problem, although there may be aspects of
governance and management that need improvement;
• amber – the system demonstrates significant, worrying failings,

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and may fall foul of a legal challenge;
• red – the system’s failings are so significant, or its architecture so
inappropriate. We do not feel it should continue, given the
likelihood that it will have a negative impact on life in our society.

(Foundation for Information Policy

Research (2009))
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5. Large scale database systems [5]

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5. Large scale database systems [6]

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5. Large scale database systems [7]

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5. Large scale database systems [8]
• Though this section has focused entirely on public
sector databases of personal information, it is
important to bear in mind that it is NOT solely
governments or government agencies that collect and

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store personal details.
• For example, Google and Yahoo! retain search
information for several months, and the contents of any
messages sent via Gmail are searched (though by
machine rather than human) for the purposes of
targeted advertising.

36
5. Large scale database systems [11]
• Nevertheless, there are many benefits, both to
society and to individuals, from these mass
collections of personal data
• They can provide speedy access to services,

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efficiencies and cost savings in administration and
enhanced experiences in our personal
interactions.
• Several of the readings have mentioned to a
tension between the advantages they confer and
the privacy they require us to sacrifice. 37