Are You Being Watched?
It’s been said, that in today’s world, we are never more than 10 feet away from some form of video surveillance at any moment in our lives. As you walk around campus, shop in a store, drive around the city or ride public transportation, take a moment to look around and chances are you will see a video camera ever watching. Even right now, as you read this blog in the privacy of your home and you think you are all alone, someone may actually be watching you! If you’re using a webcam, or your laptop, tablet or smart phone has an embedded camera, you may have someone watching you right now! While this may sound like something out of a horror movie or conspiracy theory rhetoric, the reality exists that it is easier to do than most people realize. In a story on “Slate.com” titled, “I See You Typing”, Christopher Beam writes “The China-based cyber-spy network known as "GhostNet" is a sophisticated group of hackers capable of logging its victims' keystrokes, stealing their documents, capturing images from their screens—and staring creepily at them through their webcams.” He goes on to say that “Spying on someone by hacking into his webcam is disturbingly easy”(Beam, 2009). The Cyberworld has become somewhat of an electronic “Panopticon”, where you never really know if you are free from prying eyes. Of course the reality exists that chances are you are not being watched, but with even the most remote prospect that someone may be watching you, will you ever really feel safe leaving your laptop open while changing clothes or typing private information again?
One has to wonder that if watching someone through their computer is so easy for hackers to do, imagine what government or big business is capable of. In a real world, first hand experience, the company that I used to work for employed many people that had constant access to the Internet. Naturally, the company wasn’t paying its employees to peruse the Internet but throughout the day, many people were inclined to take ‘Internet breaks’ that sometimes stretched for hours. In an effort to curb this unauthorized and non-productive usage, the company installed software on everyone’s computers that would enable upper level management to view anyone’s screen remotely at any point they wanted. It also logged all the sites that anyone went to and logged their keystrokes. This information was passed on to the workers and overnight personal Internet usage came to an almost complete stop. As Foucault had stated, “He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection" (Foucault, 1975). Foucault postulated that using disciplinary power in a continuous form, such as the inference that someone might be watching what you are doing at any given moment, would cause people to self-police themselves to avoid any repercussions that might exist. By installing the surveillance software, the company had created a “Panoptical” situation where no one actually knew if they were being watched and as such adjusted their behavior to reflect a better work ethic. As Foucault had also pointed out, by exercising this form of cyber “discipline” the company had created a more “docile body” in the employees that could now be molded into more productive workers that did not require any additional management staff to manage this as they policed their own actions.
As we discussed in class, what keeps us from doing certain things? The mere thought of negative repercussions keeps us from shoplifting, running red lights, loafing at work, or even making certain gestures in front of a camera when we might not know if someone is actually watching us. In many cases, we avoid even looking into surveillance cameras at the risk of appearing suspicious because we are not sure if someone is watching and what they might think we are doing. Even when we think we are free from the possibility of someone watching us, one look at “Google Maps” and the clarity of satellite surveillance that is omnipresent in today’s society can and will lead one to believe that we are never truly free from the Orwellian concept of “Big Brother” that is watching us. We have become so accustomed to the panoptical system that Foucault discussed that we fail to even recognize that we’ve become subjugated by it and as such have become a more docile, moldable, obedient society.
So before you go to bed tonight, take a moment to look over at your laptop. Is “Big Brother” watching you?
One has to wonder that if watching someone through their computer is so easy for hackers to do, imagine what government or big business is capable of. In a real world, first hand experience, the company that I used to work for employed many people that had constant access to the Internet. Naturally, the company wasn’t paying its employees to peruse the Internet but throughout the day, many people were inclined to take ‘Internet breaks’ that sometimes stretched for hours. In an effort to curb this unauthorized and non-productive usage, the company installed software on everyone’s computers that would enable upper level management to view anyone’s screen remotely at any point they wanted. It also logged all the sites that anyone went to and logged their keystrokes. This information was passed on to the workers and overnight personal Internet usage came to an almost complete stop. As Foucault had stated, “He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection" (Foucault, 1975). Foucault postulated that using disciplinary power in a continuous form, such as the inference that someone might be watching what you are doing at any given moment, would cause people to self-police themselves to avoid any repercussions that might exist. By installing the surveillance software, the company had created a “Panoptical” situation where no one actually knew if they were being watched and as such adjusted their behavior to reflect a better work ethic. As Foucault had also pointed out, by exercising this form of cyber “discipline” the company had created a more “docile body” in the employees that could now be molded into more productive workers that did not require any additional management staff to manage this as they policed their own actions.
As we discussed in class, what keeps us from doing certain things? The mere thought of negative repercussions keeps us from shoplifting, running red lights, loafing at work, or even making certain gestures in front of a camera when we might not know if someone is actually watching us. In many cases, we avoid even looking into surveillance cameras at the risk of appearing suspicious because we are not sure if someone is watching and what they might think we are doing. Even when we think we are free from the possibility of someone watching us, one look at “Google Maps” and the clarity of satellite surveillance that is omnipresent in today’s society can and will lead one to believe that we are never truly free from the Orwellian concept of “Big Brother” that is watching us. We have become so accustomed to the panoptical system that Foucault discussed that we fail to even recognize that we’ve become subjugated by it and as such have become a more docile, moldable, obedient society.
So before you go to bed tonight, take a moment to look over at your laptop. Is “Big Brother” watching you?