States of Exception, Surveillance and Population Management: The Case of Israel/Palestine; due 1 April 2008.

PDF version available here. Read more about @title...

Valerie Steeves, Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa; Why Data Protection Doesn't Work: Rethinking Westin's Theory of Privacy from a Social Perspective; Thursday, February 14th, Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room D411 12:30pm to 1:30pm.

Valerie Steeves Assistant Professor Department of Criminology University of Ottawa

Why Data Protection Doesn't Work: Rethinking Westin's Theory of Privacy from a Social Perspective

Thursday, February 14th Location: Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room D411 Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm

Over the past 30 years, legislators have used Westin's definition of privacy as informational control in order to provide citizens with protection from privacy-invasive practices on the part of governments and institutions. However, these laws have done little to constrain the growth of a surveillance state. This paper returns to Westin's original articulation of privacy theory, and seeks to explain why laws based on the notion of privacy as informational control are unable to adequately protect privacy as a social and a democratic value. Read more about @title...

Stéphane Leman-Langlois, School of Criminology, Université de Montréal, "The Local Impact of CCTV on the Social Construction of Security", January 17th, 12:30pm.

Stéphane Leman-Langlois Assistant Professor School of Criminology Université de Montréal

The Local Impact of CCTV on the Social Construction of Security

Thursday, January 17th Location: Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room D411 Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm

The use of closed circuit television in public spaces has given rise to a sizable amount of literature, which generally falls into four broad categories. First, many authors have probed the effects of increased surveillance on various aspects of civil society. The second category, under the "crime science" program, presents numerous efforts at measuring the impact of CCTV surveillance on local and aggregated crime rates. The third category of CCTV literature is modest by comparison and includes studies of the uses made of CCTV by operators and the social organization of surveillance work. Read more about @title...

Detlev Zwick, York University, "Marketing as Bioproduction: The Customer Database as New Means of Production", Tuesday, November 20th, 12:30pm to 1:30pm.

Detlev Zwick Associate Professor Department of Marketing Schulich School of Business York University

Marketing as Bioproduction: The Customer Database as New Means of Production

Tuesday, November 20th Location: Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room D411 Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm

This presentation uses data collected during an ongoing ethnographic study of a small customer intelligence company to argue that new forms of database marketing are best described as customer production process that rely on the exploitation of consumer life. We suggest that the work of such firms to visualize consumption, or rather consumer life phenomena, at the microscopic level leads to a reorganization of the gaze of marketers and the way marketing practice configures and controls spaces of operation and forms of capitalization. Therefore the fundamental question we pose in this article is how should we understand marketing in the age of the information machine? Read more about @title...

Bart Simon, Concordia University; "Playing with the Databased Self: Perfect Surveillance in the Age of Virtual Worlds", November 15th, 1:30pm to 2:30pm.

Bart Simon Associate Professor Department of Sociology and Anthropology Concordia University

Playing with the Databased Self: Perfect Surveillance in the Age of Virtual Worlds

Thursday, November 15th Location: Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room D411 Time: 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Forget about CCTV, ID cards and genetic profiling, massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds like The World of Warcraft represent the apotheosis of the post-panoptic dreams of our modern culture. These places, where we increasingly occupy more and more of our leisure time, offer us what Foucault called "diagrams" of perfect surveillance and control. Each person in these spaces is rendered as a perfectly intelligible relation of data more manageable, more manipulable and more predictable than any population envisaged by Babbage's first calculating machines, or criminal database, or market profile. Read more about @title...

The Surveillance Project is looking for research assistance (student position) in the preparation of an edited collection on the topic of national identity cards. Read more about @title...

Shanly Dixon, Concordia University, "MySpace is No Place for Moms; Regulation and Surveillance of Young People's Play", Thursday, November 1st, 12:30 to 1:30 pm.

Shanly Dixon PhD Candidate Humanities Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program Concordia University

"MySpace is No Place for Moms; Regulation and Surveillance of Young People's Play"

Thursday, November 1st Location: Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room D528 Time: 12:30 to 1:30 pm

From the spaces of playgrounds and parks to neighborhood streets, public space no longer appears safe for young people. As their play, leisure time and social activities become increasingly organized and supervised by adults, children's autonomous play moves indoors into the domestic space of playrooms and bedrooms. Adults equip children's domestic space with technologically enticing alternatives to public space in an effort to keep them safely inside. Households become 'media saturated' spaces. Read more about @title...

Simon Kitto, School of Rural Health, Monash University, Australia; Thursday, October 25th, 12:30pm to 1:30pm.

"Making Technological Students: Precarious Moments in the Translation of Offline and Online Surveillance of Students in Technological Universities"

Location: Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room D411 Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm

This seminar presents research into the involvement of surveillance mechanisms in advanced liberal university settings focusing on the role of online education systems in the constitution and ordering of Technological Students. These types of students are expected to be self-regulating, information literate and able to manipulate information technology to interact with society in the pursuit of the maximisation of their social and economic utility. Read more about @title...

Elin Palm, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden,

Thursday, October 18th, Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room B503, 12:30 to 1:30 pm.

Elin Palm, PhD Candidate - Department of Philosophy The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

"Strengthening Employees' Negotiating Power: The Importance of Contextualized Consent"

Thursday, October 18th, Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room B503, 12:30 to 1:30 pm.

The starting point of this presentation is that employees' chances of securing reasonable expectations of privacy at work must be better protected. Prevailing privacy protection legislation accommodates one single dimension of privacy leaving central aspects aside. Whereas workers' personal data enjoys legal protection, their need for local privacy at work is not supported by privacy protection law. Moreover, a dependency asymmetry between employer and job-applicant implies that prospective employees are in a disadvantaged position vis à vis the employer regarding the chances of defending their reasonable interests. Read more about @title...

If you have nothing to hide, do you have nothing to fear? Surveillance Awareness Week (SAW) 26 - 30 November 2007 at Queen's University.

Join The Surveillance Project for a week-long examination of our global surveillance society. Keep an eye out for lunchtime speakers, film screenings, and other special events all week long. Free and open to everyone.

Monday 26 November

12 - 1 pm: Why Watching Works: Surveillance in Daily Life David Lyon , Director, The Surveillance Project; Queen's Research Chair, Sociology; and Killam Fellow

Somehow, there's power in watching, but what is it? Whether literal watching (CCTV) or metaphorical watching (internet data trails) our daily lives are affected. Not only do our "private" spaces and activities become "public" -- we do things differently because we're watched. But does this mean that "they" have us in their grip? Not necessarily, but we may conform more, even as we continue to "make choices."

Chernoff Hall room 211

Tuesday 27 November

12 - 1 pm: Facebook and online surveillance: It could happen to you (and it probably does!) Read more about @title...