State Surveillance

A State Surveillance is a mass surveillance conducted by a governing body to monitor and gather information on its citizens or subjects.

• Context:
  • It can employ various methods such as Telecommunications Surveillance, Video Surveillance, Internet Surveillance, and Biometric Surveillance.
  • It is often justified by states as necessary for maintaining National Security, Public Safety, or Law Enforcement.
  • It can have a Chilling Effect on Free Speech, Political Dissent, and Civil Liberties.
  • It can disproportionately target Marginalized Communities or Political Activists.
  • It has become increasingly sophisticated with advancements in Surveillance Technology.
  • It is frequently discussed in relation to its implications on Privacy Rights, potentially leading to a Surveillance State or Authoritarianism.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • Mass Surveillance Programs:
    • The NSA's PRISM and ECHELON programs in the United States, which collect vast amounts of data on citizens' communications and online activities.
    • The United Kingdom's Tempora program taps into fiber-optic cables to intercept and store internet data.
    • China's Golden Shield Project, also known as the "Great Firewall," which extensively monitors and filters internet traffic.
    • Russia's SORM system, which allows the government to monitor email, phone calls, and internet activity.
    • ...
  • Targeted Surveillance:
    • The FBI's COINTELPRO program in the United States monitored and harassed civil rights activists in the 1960s and 1970s.
    • The use of Pegasus spyware by various governments to target journalists, activists, and political opponents.
    • The targeting of Uyghur Muslims in China through surveillance technology and data collection.
    • ...
  • Biometric Surveillance:
    • Facial recognition systems are used by law enforcement in many countries to identify and track individuals in public spaces.
    • India's Aadhaar system collects biometric data (fingerprints and iris scans) from over a billion citizens.
    • The use of DNA databases by police in various countries to identify suspects and solve crimes.
    • ...
  • Predictive Policing and Algorithmic Surveillance:
    • The use of predictive policing algorithms in the United States that analyze surveillance data to predict and prevent potential crimes, which has been criticized for reinforcing racial biases.
    • China's social credit system uses surveillance data to assign scores to citizens based on their behavior and compliance with government regulations.
    • ...
  • Border and Immigration Surveillance:
    • Using drones, sensors, and biometric data collection to monitor borders in countries like the United States, Australia, and many European nations.
    • Surveillance and data collection on refugees and asylum seekers in various countries, such as Germany's use of ankle bracelets to track their movements.
    • ...
  • Corporate Surveillance in Collaboration with States:
    • The sharing of user data by telecommunications companies like AT&T and Verizon with the NSA in the United States.
    • The cooperation of tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft with government surveillance programs through data sharing and backdoor access.
    • ...
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Privacy Protections like the Fourth Amendment in the U.S. that prohibit unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
  • Surveillance Oversight mechanisms like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) that provide judicial review of surveillance activities.
  • Encryption technologies that protect the content of citizens' digital communications from government interception.
  • State Violence, such as state-sanctioned violence.
  • ...
• See: Surveillance, Local Government, Federal Government, Intelligence Agency, Judiciary, Totalitarianism, Terrorism, Social Unrest, Government Transparency, Police State, Civil Liberties, Right to Privacy.

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References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance Retrieved:2024-5-2.
  • Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizations, but it may also be carried out by corporations (either on behalf of governments or at their own initiative). Depending on each nation's laws and judicial systems, the legality of and the permission required to engage in mass surveillance varies. It is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes. It is often distinguished from targeted surveillance. Mass surveillance has often been citedas necessary to fight terrorism, prevent crime and social unrest, protect national security, and control the population. At the same time, mass surveillance has equally often been criticized for violating privacy rights, limiting civil and political rights and freedoms, and being illegal under some legal or constitutional systems. Another criticism is that increasing mass surveillance could potentially lead to the development of a surveillance state, an electronic police state, or a totalitarian state wherein civil liberties are infringed or political dissent is undermined by COINTELPRO-like programs. In 2013, the practice of mass surveillance by world governments was called into question after Edward Snowden's 2013 global surveillance disclosure on the practices by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. Reporting based on documents Snowden leaked to various media outlets triggered a debate about civil liberties and the right to privacy in the Digital Age. Mass surveillance is considered a global issue. The Aerospace Corporation of the United States describes a near-future event, the "GEOINT Singularity", in which everything on Earth will be monitored at all times, analyzed by artificial intelligence systems, and then redistributed and made available to the general public globally in real time.

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