Posts Tagged wikileaks

Nobody questions the fact that we live in a surveillance society -the development of surveillance-oriented security technology, improved intelligence-gathering and data-mining, identification and tracking techniques embedded in our everyday lives and cities… The list of devices that monitor our moves, interactions with public bodies, online activities, consumption patterns, etc. is never-ending. And, for all the talk about privacy, we have not managed to hold most of the surveillants accountable to the surveilled. Even though the affordability of devices with surveillance capabilities, such as mobile phones, have made it possible for the odd example of surveillance being used against those in power (such as the police’s role in the death of Ian Tomlison at the G20 protests in London in 2009), it is obvious that most surveillance is about those at the top (sur) being able to control and use data of those at the bottom (sous).

Until now.

Wikileaks is doing *exactly* what most corporations and governments do with our personal data on a regular basis: use it as they wish, even sell it, without our consent, while providing us with very few and very weak tools to protect what we care about or be able to monitor how our information is used and circulated.

Which, apparently, is fine when they do it. When the surveilled take control, however, all hell breaks loose.

Personally, I would prefer stronger regulation and better protection of personal information -even that of those in power. I would rather information only be recorded and stored when necessary and with permission. But in the world of CCTV, biometrics, full-body scanners and the like, it does not look like that is going to happen anytime soon. Therefore, if I am asked to put up with the use and abuse of my personal data in the surveillance society, I might as well be given the possibility to turn the gaze on the surveillants.

So since I was never given the choice to opt out of the surveillance society, I choose to join the sousveillance society, and the ranks of those who refuse to be held accountable by the unaccountable.

I choose to support WikiLeaks.

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