Social Surveillance BY USING SOCIAL MEDIA WE ARE UNDER CONSTANT

SURVEILLANCE BY NOT ONLY OUR SELECTED ‘FRIENDS’, BUT

THE WHOLE WORLD

DOES, OR SHOULD THE RECENT INFORMATION ON THE

LEVEL OF SOCIAL SURVEILLANCE HAVE AN IMPACT ON

HOW WE USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social Surveillance

Social surveillance is the use of Web 2.0 sites like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare to

see what friends, family, and acquaintances are “up to” (Joinson 2008; Tokunaga

2011).

http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-

society/article/viewFile/pub_dom/pub_dom

Surveillance and Social Media

"'Social media' like Facebook or Twitter have become

tremendously popular in recent years. Their popularity

Provides New Opportunities for Data Collection by state and

private Companies, Which requires a critical and theoretical

focus on Social Media Surveillance.” Fuchs and Trottier (2015)

Fuchs, Christian

“users cannot control their peers, nor can they

control the intentions of those who control services

like Facebook means that the longer users live on

Facebook the more unprotected their lives are” Fuchs

and Trottier (2015)

Security and laws of social media

profiles HEADLINE: “Social media mass surveillance is permitted by

law, says top UK official”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/17/mass-surveillance-social-media-permitted-uk-law-

charles-farr

“Legitmate legal target”

Social Survelliance and the law Examples

In winter of 2009 fugitive Craig Lynch posted the below message on social media

Lynch posted this message, little did he know yes he was able to escape the police but

however was remaining in the public eye.

Our control on what social media

profiles portray

“I’d been looking for this robbery suspect. Detectives were at a

dead end; I decide to look and see if the guy has Facebook. He does, completely unsecured, and had just ‘checked-in’ at a strip

club. Search the lot, find a car matching the description of what he

was seen leaving the robbery in. Turns out to be stolen. Wait for him

to walk out, ID him, bring him to the detectives with their jaws hanging open. Guy admitted to it all. I didn’t even have to use my

A.K.”

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/the-new-inside-source-

for-police-forces-social-networks/#ixzz3ogW9Xt8i

Past research and statistics on

social media privacy

Northwestern University research paper questions regarding social media:

During a year in which Facebook altered its privacy settings accompanied by widespread media attention, to what extent did the site’s users alter their settings?

How does frequency of Facebook use relate to whether or not people adjust their privacy settings?

How does confidence in managing privacy settings correlate with the practice of doing so?

Is gender correlated with either confidence in or the practice of managing privacy settings?

Is general Internet user skill related to either confidence in or the practice of managing privacy settings?

Past Research Results

Research Activity: Facebook Surveillance

References

Bowcott, O. and Ball, J. (2014). Social media mass surveillance is permitted by law, says top UK official. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/17/mass-surveillance-social-media-permitted-uk-

law-charles-farr [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].

Boyd, D. and Hargittai, E. (2010). Facebook privacy settings: Who cares?. First Monday, 15(8).

Fuchs, C. and Trottier, D. (2015). Towards a theoretical model of social media surveillance in contemporary society. Communications, 40(1).

Knibbs, K. (2013). In the online hunt for criminals, social media is the ultimate snitch. [online] Digital Trends. Available at: http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/the-new-inside-source-for-police-forces-social-networks/#ixzz3ogW9Xt8i [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].

Marwick, A. (2015). [online] Library.queensu.ca. Available at: http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-

society/article/viewFile/pub_dom/pub_dom [Accessed 18 Oct. 2015].