This dissertation examines the development of state surveillance, the emergence of information privacy issues, and implications for social control in Thailand.;The analytical framework draws on western critical social theory that questions the legitimacy of modern forms of state surveillance, and discourse on privacy that argues for limits on infringements on privacy through social action and public policy. The research included documentary research for the historiography of surveillance; case studies of contemporary surveillance practices by two technologically-advanced government organizations; interviews with government administrators, policy-makers, and selected members of the Thai public; as well as analysis of information policies and laws.;Social reform and a state-engineered modernization program, brought about by western capitalism and imperialism in the late nineteenth century, introduced rationalized methods of surveillance into Thailand (Siam)'s rudimentary system of social control. The new civil registration system became an integral part in the rise of the absolutist state and later the emergence of a “bureaucratic polity,” which used the consolidation of an internal security state as rationale for tight social control and suppression of democratic discourse.;The changing political economy and the emerging “civil society” since the late 1980s have undermined the “bureaucratic polity” while creating openings for relative autonomy in some areas. Meanwhile, the aspiration for industrialization has led to a massive informatization of Thai society. In a relative absence of public consciousness about privacy, information and communication technologies (ICTs) became widely exploited in personal record-keeping by the state. These new modes of surveillance helped entrench patterns of state domination and social injustice in many areas, including political elections, employment, and health. Despite the emergent regulation of state information practices and legislative attempts for personal data protection, which was brought on by penetrative international policy frameworks, implications of state surveillance and its growing interactions with private sector surveillance are still not sufficiently addressed.;The study concludes that the emerging information privacy regime may not suffice to cope with the growing technological surveillance by the state. It proposes that the issues be advanced through critical scholarship and public learning to create avenues for resistance.
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