Dataveillance

Dataveillance is the observation, collection, and processing of data, whether on a personal or group scale. The term dataveillance comes from the work of surveillance theorist Roger Clarke, who proposed this term as a way of capturing the impact of data processing and information technology systems on personal or mass surveillance. What distinguishes dataveillance from analog surveillance is its reliance on the technical means of processing. The potential of dataveillance, as detailed in this entry, is visible in the corporate world, in national security applications, as well as in citizens’ demands for transparency. Therefore, dataveillance’s massive potential, dependent on computing power, is at once a tool for profit, an instrument of mass surveillance, and a technique for ensuring better governance. This entry first describes dataveillance, ...