Information Literacy (LIBR 2100)

Surveillance is defined as "the act of carefully watching someone or something especially in order to prevent or detect a crime" (Merriam-Webster.com)

Mass surveillance is watching an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by governments or organizations within government, but may also be carried out by corporations, either on behalf of governments or at their own initiative. Depending on each nation's laws and judicial systems, the legality of surveillance and permission to conduct surveillance varies ("Mass surveillance," 2016, paras. 1-2).

Global surveillance is mass surveillance of entire populations across national borders...Its existence, however, was not widely acknowledged by governments and the mainstream media until the global surveillance disclosures by Edward Snowden in 2013 triggered a debate about the right to privacy ("Global surveillance," 2016, paras. 1-2).

Global surveillance. (2016, June 23). In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 4, 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_surveillance

Mass surveillance. (2016, June 22). In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 4, 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance

Kursgesagt - In a Nutshell. (2016, April 14). Safe and sorry: Terrorism & mass surveillance [Video file]. Retrieved July 2, 2014 from https://youtu.be/V9_PjdU3Mpo

Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American computer professional, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, and former contractor for the United States government who copied and leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 without prior authorization. His disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments ("Edward Snowden," 2016, para. 1, emphasis added).

In May 2013 in Hong Kong, Snowden, leaked the details of the NSA surveillance to reporters from The Guardian newspaper, including nearly 10,000 top secret documents. This release "has been called the most significant leak in U.S. history" (sec. 6.1).

For more details, see http://www.edwardsnowden.com

and

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/edward-snowden

Edward Snowden. (2016, July 3). In Wikipedia. Retrieved July 3, 2016 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden

Seeker Daily. (2015, February 26). Everything you need to know about Edward Snowden [Video file]. Retrieved June 30, 2016 from https://youtu.be/H6vkEx5fQnc

View more videos on Edward Snowden and the USA Government Surveillance. (Mount login required)

United States of Secrets: The US surveillance program Part 1 [Video file]. (2014). In Films On Demand. Retrieved July 1, 20167, from http://ezproxy.msvu.ca/login?url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=257578&xtid=114704  

Part one goes inside Washington to piece together the secret political history of "the program," which began in the wake of Sept. 11 and continues today -- even after the revelations of its existence by Edward Snowden.

United States of Secrets: The US surveillance program Part 2 [Video file]. (2014). In Films On Demand. Retrieved July 1, 2017, from http://ezproxy.msvu.ca/login?url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=257578&xtid=114705

Part two explores the secret relationship between Silicon Valley and the National Security Agency: How have the government and tech companies worked together to gather and warehouse your data?

Transparent Lives (n.d.) reports the following trends in surveillance in Canada:

1. The normalization of surveillance
2. The rise of security culture
3. The blurring of sectors "Corporate gathering of personal data now outstrips that done by police and intelligence agencies" (para. 3)
4. The growing ambiguity of personal information
5. Surveillance by mobile
6. The global surveillance market
7. Surveillance through things (like cars, buildings, and more)
8. Bio-surveillance
9. Watching by the people: from them to us. "Social media have facilitated an explosion of digitally enabled people watching" (para. 9)

Transparent Lives. (n.d.) Trends. Retrieved July 3, 2016 from http://www.surveillanceincanada.org/trends

See also: Bill C-13 (Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, 2014) and Bill C-51 (Anti-terrorism Act, 2015)

This is a trailer for the book of the same title; however, it addresses some of the key issues that surround surveillance in Canada.

Note: the subtitles are in French, but you can adjust the CC settings to auto-translate to English and the captions are quite good.

Lyon, D. (2014, May 7). Transparent lives: Surveillance in Canada (book trailer) [Video file]. Retrieved July 1, 2016 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDZqWG9xFJ0

You can download a free PDF of the book from Athabasca University Press

You can also borrow the e-book copy from the Mount Library.

What is privacy?

"Broadly speaking, privacy is the right to be let alone, or freedom from interference or intrusion. Information privacy is the right to have some control over how your personal information is collected and used.

Ask most people these days what they think of when it comes to privacy and you’re likely to have a conversation about massive data breaches, wearable tech, social networking, targeted advertising miscues—not to mention the Snowden revelations" (International Association of Privacy Professionals, 2016, paras. 1-2).

There are measures you can - and should - take to protect your privacy online. Read (and watch) the following sections to learn more.

International Association of Privacy Professionals. (2016). What is privacy? Retrieved July 4, 2016 from https://iapp.org/about/what-is-privacy/

TED. (2013, May 2). Juan Enriquez: Your online life, permanent as a tattoo [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Fu1C-oBdsMM

TED. (2014, April 3). Jennifer Golbeck: The curly fry conundrum: Why social media "likes" say more than you might think [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgWie9dnssU

In this video, Golbrick makes reference to a study that was published in the "Proceedings of the National Academies." Here is the article she's referring to:

Kosinski, M., Stillwell, D., & Graepel, T. (2013). Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(15), 5802–5805. doi:10.1073/pnas.1218772110

Transparent Lives (n.d.) has the following recommendations for protecting your privacy online:

1. Configure your computer's security settings
2. Manage cookies (ideally, disable them)
3. Use different e-mail accounts: a primary one using your real name to communicate with individuals you know, and secondary account(s) with pseudonyms for news groups, chat rooms or other online forums
4. Use search engines that do not collect or share personal information, such as Startpage or DuckDuckGo
5. Use secure Internet connections wherever possible https:// instead of http://
6. Avoid opening suspicious e-mails and Internet links
7. Use your privacy settings on social media (e.g. Facebook Privacy Settings) to limit who sees your personal information
8. Check with the other person before you make comments that refer to them on social media. In your own settings on Facebook, use Timeline review to ensure that you can review posts to your timeline before they appear there
9. Disable your Internet connection when you are not using it
10. Think carefully about websites you visit at work versus at home

Transparent Lives. (n.d.) Protecting your online privacy: FAQ. Retrieved July 3, 2016 from http://www.surveillanceincanada.org/resources

In Canada there are agencies at the federal and provincial levels that protect individuals' privacy:

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

See the Privacy Commissioner's 10 Tips for Protecting Personal Information

Office of the Information & Privacy Commissioner No

The settings depend on the browser you use (Firefox versus Chrome versus Safari), so use these tips to turn on private browsing for your preferred browser.

Hadley, L. (2015, September 10). How to enable private browsing. Retrieved July 3, 2016 from http://www.ehow.com/how_6752155_enable-private-browsing.html

This video gives a very quick overview of privacy enhancing tools such as TOR routers and the DuckDuckGo browser. We don't recommend them; your personal comfort level with online privacy is your own choice. But we do want to inform you that these tools exist and you can explore them on your own.

Note: The captioning in this video isn't perfect, but is nearly so.

Rudson, L. (Producer). (2013, July 21). Secure your online privacy with TOR and DuckDuckGo. TechFeed News [Video broadcast]. Retrieved June 28, 2016 from https://youtu.be/6q68UFUNKGA