Surveillance is everywhere. Even if people do not notice, it is all around us. When creating my surveillance diary and analyzing the results, I noticed several differences in surveillance depending on the locations and settings that I was in. While I was at work, most of the time there was always the feeling that you were being watched, and by the information collected, it was made clear to me that it was not just a feeling. On the other hand, while being in places such as York University for school, although there is security and surveillance, the feeling of being watched was not present as much versus being at work. However, I also noticed that while being in places that felt like it was absolutely impossible to be watched, for example being
…show more content…
I found that this was the case because of social surveillance. Social Surveillance is defined as the “ongoing eavesdropping, investigation, gossip and inquiry that constitutes information gathering by people about their peers, made salient by the social digitization normalized by social media” (Marwick, 382). When consulting my surveillance diary, it was clear how many times I contributed to social surveillance while being at home behind my computer or phone by how many times I picked up my phone to check what was going on with my coworkers, friends, and family. Most of the time while looking through social networks, I would just read through posts, click on random profiles to read a bit about them, and then continue scrolling through the news feeds of Facebook or Tumblr so I would be caught up with current events. In relation to this, I noticed how my information was being tracked by websites as well. In Marwick’s article, she mentions how dataveillance is the collection of information from internet users in order to benefit social media companies (Marwick, 379). In the afternoon of Wednesday, September 8 of my surveillance diary, I found that after researching a cologne to buy for my dad on the Ralph Lauren website, and then switching my browser to Facebook, I saw an advertisement for that same cologne on Facebook. Even though I was using data on my phone and was in public transit, I noticed that my information was being tracked even more closely than at my job or even at York University, and that Facebook was using that information to advertise back to me in order to get me to buy that particular cologne. Another thing that I observed about surveillance online was that I was more
I found that this was the case because of social surveillance. Social Surveillance is defined as the “ongoing eavesdropping, investigation, gossip and inquiry that constitutes information gathering by people about their peers, made salient by the social digitization normalized by social media” (Marwick, 382). When consulting my surveillance diary, it was clear how many times I contributed to social surveillance while being at home behind my computer or phone by how many times I picked up my phone to check what was going on with my coworkers, friends, and family. Most of the time while looking through social networks, I would just read through posts, click on random profiles to read a bit about them, and then continue scrolling through the news feeds of Facebook or Tumblr so I would be caught up with current events. In relation to this, I noticed how my information was being tracked by websites as well. In Marwick’s article, she mentions how dataveillance is the collection of information from internet users in order to benefit social media companies (Marwick, 379). In the afternoon of Wednesday, September 8 of my surveillance diary, I found that after researching a cologne to buy for my dad on the Ralph Lauren website, and then switching my browser to Facebook, I saw an advertisement for that same cologne on Facebook. Even though I was using data on my phone and was in public transit, I noticed that my information was being tracked even more closely than at my job or even at York University, and that Facebook was using that information to advertise back to me in order to get me to buy that particular cologne. Another thing that I observed about surveillance online was that I was more