David Lyon’s “Surveillance, Snowden, and Big Data: Capacities, consequences, critique” — SUMMARY

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Words I found challenging:

• Surveillance
• Big Data
• Privacy
• Metadata

My definition of the “Surveillance”: Close observation of certain person’s actions and collecting data about them without their knowledge and consent. For example, state’s agencies may use surveillance techniques by collecting phone records or visited websites history.

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Privacy is a very sensitive sphere of everybody’s life. None of us like to feel spied or oppressed by someone collecting data about them. The subject of privacy becomes even more important to us in the era of highly developed technology. Both new software and hardware that became part of almost every human being’s everyday life give wide range of new possibilities and tools of surveillance. It means that collecting data is easier than ever.

The topic of surveillance is the main subject of David Lyon’s work “Surveillance, Snowden, and Big Data: Capacities, consequences, critique” which discuss the use of Big Data in terms of surveillance. The article explains the phenomenon of contemporary surveillance that was a subject of international interest after disclosure of methods used by US National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 by Edward Snowden.

Lyon points out that in situations like Snowden’s leak mass media focus on the topic of what kind of data are collected, while the most important fact is not what these data are but how institutions like NSA are going to analyse them. Collected phone records itself are not the most valuable data but thanks to them after proper analysis they can give information about the location of phone users, their relationships with other users or even how their day looks like.

The way our data are analysed is really important to understand the meaning of Big Data in surveillance process, however, equally important is the our data is collected. According to Lyon, we can distinguish three main types of collecting data in terms of their use for surveillance purposes. The first one is the data that is collected because of the certain need or request. This data source is known as directed. The second one is automated data source which allows to collect data without the need of human operator like it happens in case of routinely recorded bank transaction. The third type of data source is known as “volunteered”. It applies to data given by, more or less aware of that, users of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

The phenomenon of surveillance is very often justified by state agencies using the argument of “national security”. This argument was eagerly used to justify actions and law changes after the terrorist attack in 2001. David Lyon notices that higher social acceptance for surveillance after tragic 9/11 terrorist attack coincided with the raise of social media what led to the boost of “surveillance state”. The architecture of social media and their importance in everyday life make it a great platform for real-time tracking and monitoring.

In his article, Lyon points out that state agencies, like famous because of Snowden’s leaks NSA, are not the only actors that use surveillance methods. Following his definition of Big Data, it in not big because of its capacity but also and perhaps in particular, because of their value. This value can be calculated to real money, therefore there is no surprise companies like Google or Facebook are interested in it. However, what Lyon argues is that what is fine in terms of surveillance for companies like Google, may be completely unacceptable for state agencies like the NSA.

Lyon concludes that Big Data play very important role in modern surveillance process. In his opinion Snowden’s revelations showed not only how much surveillance is based on Big Data nowadays but also how far, in terms of surveillance, state goes. The question that need to be asked is whether this is the kind of society we want to live in.

Seminar question: How far surveillance can be justified by “national security” aspect.