Global Surveillance

Global or mass surveillance is the periodic, continuous, or repetitive distributive monitoring or observation of an entire population—or a substantial fraction of the population—as a means of collecting desirable information. The surveillance of population groups is not a new phenomenon; however, progress in technologies allows a much larger scope for surveillance, and there are multiple platforms for systematic and high-tech data collection, extraction, processing, filtering, instantaneous analysis, and retention. Moreover, rather than an exceptional measure, mass surveillance is emerging as a rather routine practice, particularly as related to digital surveillance practices. The large-scale surveillance practices represent a reconfiguration of traditional intelligence gathering and the recognition of new areas of intelligence emphasis, such as proliferation and terrorism as emergent threats to national and global security. The ...