Description
Book SynopsisSurveillance and the Vanishing Individual is an investigation into the impact of the spread of digital technologies and practices, and especially the wide-spread practice of mass surveillance, on privacy and personhood. The book argues that the quest for prediction, certainty, and control lying at the heart of the state’s security apparatus destroys an essential component of human dignity and fundamentally undermines liberalism.
The book begins with a discussion of the rise of the digital age and the historical import of this development. Subsequent chapters of the book examine different cultural understandings of privacy, the philosophical discussion of its centrality to human existence, and the form and extent of its legal protection. Lindau explores the reasons behind the rise of mass state surveillance, the modest legal restraints governing its use, and its deployment against activists, protestors, and dissidents and its impact on individuals and on privacy. The book then turns to a discussion of the rise of “surveillance capitalism” and, because this is not just—or even primarily—a U.S. phenomenon, examines the political, social, and other impacts of social media around the world. The book includes a case study discussing the global use of surveillance during the Covid-19 pandemic and the implications of this development before concluding with reflections on the relationship between mass surveillance and liberalism.
The book will appeal equally to readers across the social sciences and philosophy, and to students in courses on privacy, surveillance, and democracy. Lindau expertly explores the social, political, and economic consequences of digitization and one of its essential features – the appropriation and “mining” of ever large troves of personal information. The book primarily focuses on the experience of the United States but includes a comparative cross-national and cross-regional analysis and a discussion of the link between different regime types and state surveillance.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Chapter 1: The Transition from the Industrial to the Digital Age
Additional Reasons for the Failure to Confront the Consequences of the Digital Age
New Configurations of Power in the Digital Age
The Emergence of New Digital Economic Identities
The Impact of the Internet on Political and Associational Activity
Conclusion
Chapter 2: Interdisciplinary Discussions of Privacy and its Loss
Socio-cultural Understandings of Privacy
Rationalization for the Loss of Privacy in the Digital Age
The “I Have Nothing to Hide Rationalization”
The “I Am Irrelevant” Rationalization
The Trump Rationalization
Public Defenders of Mass Surveillance
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Philosophical Debates About Privacy
Arguments About Privacy’s Subsidiarity to Other Rights and Interests
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Privacy as a Legal and Constitutional Right
The Fourth Amendment and Privacy
The Legal and Constitutional Protection of Privacy in Other Countries
International Law and Privacy
Conclusion
Chapter 5: National Security and the Expansion of Digital Surveillance
National Security and State Surveillance
State Constituencies Favoring Surveillance in the United States
The Left and the Right and Mass Surveillance
Conclusion
Chapter 6: The Legal Architecture Governing Mass State Surveillance
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
EO 12333
Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act
The Snowden Revelations and the USA FREEDOM Act
Additional Legal Decisions Restricting Surveillance in the United States
Conclusion
Chapter 7: Features of State Surveillance in the United States
The U.S. Government’s Policing of the World Wide Web and the Growth of the Surveillance Industrial Complex
A Typical Example of the Fruits of the Surveillance Industrial Complex: Facial Recognition
Another Example of a Flourishing Surveillance Industrial Complex Project: Cloud Surveillance
The Role of Higher Education in State Surveillance
Conclusion
Chapter 8: Surveilling the Most Vulnerable: The State and Refugees, Migrants, Dissidents and Minorities
State Surveillance of African Americans Other Ethnic Minorities and a Variety of Dissidents
Contemporary FBI Surveillance of Other Non-Violent Dissidents
Conclusion
Chapter 9: Global Digital Mass Surveillance Practices
Nationalism, Militarism and State Surveillance
The Understandings Embedded in Smart Cities/Safe Cities Initiatives
A Case Study: The Drug War and State Surveillance in Latin America
Conclusion
Chapter 10: Representative Examples of State Surveillance Around the World
China
Russia
India
Israel
The United Kingdom
France
Germany
Brazil
Mexico
Nigeria
South Africa
Thailand
Vietnam
Conclusion
Chapter 11: The Rise of “Surveillance Capitalism”
Google/Alphabet
Facebook/Meta
Amazon
Terms and Conditions and the Exploitation of an Obsolete Regulatory Environment
Corporate Surveillance and Workers
Conclusion
Chapter 12: Conspiracy Theories and Other Impacts of the Social Media Platforms
Social Media, the QAnon Conspiracy Theory and the Spread of Misinformation about the COVID-19 Pandemic
Social Media, Conspiracy Theories, and the January 6, 2021 Riot in the U.S. Capitol
Facebook’s Impact on Politics in the Global South
The Rise of Objections to the Social Media Companies
Conclusion
Chapter 13: Surveillance Tools and the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Case Study
Concerns about Pandemic Surveillance
The Bio-Surveillance Approach to COVID-19 in the West
Other Western Democracies
The East Asian and Chinese Approaches to Bio-Surveillance During the Pandemic
Other Examples
Limits on the Efficacy of Tracking and Tracing Apps on Cell Phones
Conclusion
Chapter 14: Conclusion and Epilogue
The Continued Expansion of State Surveillance
Surveillance and Politics
The Continuing Acceptance of Corporate Surveillance Despite the Growth of Criticism
Regulatory Remedies to “Surveillance Capitalism” at the End of the Second Decade of the Digital Age
The Technology Companies and Antitrust Measures
Epilogue
