Electronic Surveillance

Broadly construed, surveillance is concerned with gathering and processing information. Usually, the goal of such practices is to intervene in some way to manage the objects of surveillance. Surveillance may be directed at humans or nonhumans (e.g., animals, viruses, commodities). While some forms of surveillance rely on the human senses only, others are enabled by technical means that extend these senses in various ways. Technically, enhanced surveillance can take nonelectronic and electronic forms. The former is made possible by devices such as binoculars or a telescope, for example, while the latter depends on electronic technologies and infrastructures such as computers, satellites, and digital networks. Although surveillance has always been a feature of social systems, it is the ubiquity of electronic-based information gathering and processing practices ...