Surveillance, Transparency and the ‘Private Security State’? Problematizing transparency in the context of pre-emptive national security
The last decade has witnessed a blurring of the boundaries between public and private sector organisations in relation to national security. This blurring of these boundaries has shifted from the private provision of physical security services and infrastructure, to the provision of the very data which enable decisions about risk and deployment to be made. Pre-empting the moves of risky, targeted individuals using vast datasets gleaned from any number of sources is de rigueur in neoliberal government discourse and doctrine. In this new politics of pre-emption, mined data about the past transactions and activities of citizens become the template for risk analysis about future threats. Securitised data about customers begins to flow between the private sector and government. Information about the financial transactions, locations and communications of citizens is ‘among the most important and valuable’ for national security. How do these new government demands for information intertwine with the activities of private sector organizations, as their systems, processes, customers and employees are integrated into national security frameworks? How do private organizations achieve compliance with demands for customer data and how might this assemblage be rendered transparent? Furthermore how do we theorise this problematic? In the seminar I will address the theoretical and practical complexities of unveiling how securitised data flows from the private sector to government.
The last decade has witnessed a blurring of the boundaries between public and private sector organisations in relation to national security. This blurring of these boundaries has shifted from the private provision of physical security services and infrastructure, to the provision of the very data which enable decisions about risk and deployment to be made. Pre-empting the moves of risky, targeted individuals using vast datasets gleaned from any number of sources is de rigueur in neoliberal government discourse and doctrine. In this new politics of pre-emption, mined data about the past transactions and activities of citizens become the template for risk analysis about future threats. Securitised data about customers begins to flow between the private sector and government. Information about the financial transactions, locations and communications of citizens is ‘among the most important and valuable’ for national security. How do these new government demands for information intertwine with the activities of private sector organizations, as their systems, processes, customers and employees are integrated into national security frameworks? How do private organizations achieve compliance with demands for customer data and how might this assemblage be rendered transparent? Furthermore how do we theorise this problematic? In the seminar I will address the theoretical and practical complexities of unveiling how securitised data flows from the private sector to government.
This involves raising awareness not just of surveillance cameras but also of digital flows of personal data reaching a conclusion on big bang dissertation whether or not such watching is beneficial or harmful to self and society, and then knowing what if anything, can be done about this.
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