POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FROM SEMINAR 1

1.     There is a need for politics students, academics, and professionals to be technologically aware as well as for computer science and engineering students, academics, and professionals to be politically aware as disciplines continue to intersect.

2.     Those involved in data creation and storage need to be mindful of the possibility of that data being misused, intercepted, or commodified by others – with or without their consent. Users need to consider how data can be controlled and accessed, and what use can be made of data once created.

3.     Governments must be aware of the implications of outsourcing surveillance to private entities, both in terms of the negative impacts on competition that can result (as highlighted by Ball et al.) and more broadly of the fact that by securitising an activity, it is implicitly rendered dangerous. There are important implications for the private sector and customer relations, if private companies are co-opted into a policing function.

4.     A deeper engagement with the concept of privacy and what it means in today’s society needs to be undertaken, from political, journalistic, legal and philosophical perspectives, amongst others. Are technological tools to prevent surveillance sufficient to protect privacy or are we entering an arms’ race of technological techniques of surveillance and counterveillance (ie measures to block any type of watching)?

5.     The extent to which individuals can avoid interference with their privacy in an increasingly technological society, and the extent to which sousveillance can counteract surveillance, is worthy of further in-depth examination. In particular, is there value in sousveillance without meaningful evidence of accountability?