PRIVACY, SURVEILLANCE, TRUST AND REGULATION: Surveillance and the human-machine interface

摘要

It is a commonplace to note that much of the literature on modern-day surveillance practices focuses on CCTV monitoring of public and private spaces. That literature itself can be said to fall into three broad strands. The first — perhaps the most common and frequently populist in nature — celebrates the capacity of modern technology to 'make our streets (or other locales) safer'. It celebrates surveillance as a contribution to human well-being, either dismissing the fears of the sceptics or claiming to offer the better of two evils in an increasingly dangerous world. The British Government's current campaign to sell its proposal for biometrically enhanced identity cards, for example, relies on an explicit exploitation of presumed popular fears in a post 9/11 world. Against this, a second strand in the literature — again much of it advocational — is that which sees the proliferation of CCTV and other surveillance technology as an explicit — and frequently intentional — threat to privacy. A third strand — that which is dominant in the academic literature — while acknowledging elements of truth in the arguments of both the other strands, is inclined instead to focus on the extent to which surveillance technology is rarely as effective as either its proponents or opponents claim. It draws attention both to technical limitations and to human factors in limiting the capacity of CCTV and other systems to realize their promise (or threat) (Norris & Armstrong 1999).