Citizenship & Technology

are you happy that Big Brother is watching you?

You decide…..

Kevin Doyle Chris Wallace

Praminda Caleb-SollyDelia Fairburn

Definitions of Citizenship:

• A person is normally a citizen of the country in which they are born (and have not renounced or lost citizenship of) or naturalized and to which that person owes allegiance and by which he or she is entitled to be protected.www.immigrationonline.com/glossary/glossary.asp

• Citizenship is membership in a political community (originally a city but now usually a state), and carries with it rights to political participation; a person having such membership is a citizen. ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship

Some IS related Citizen Concerns

• Healthcare: EPR, Medical Informatics:- Choose and Book

• Education: Digital Literacy, CAL, Web based IS

• Social Welfare: CSA, Tax Credits • Law and Order: PITO, NAFIS, Electronic Surveillance

• Employment: Globalization, New Working Practices, Outsourcing,

• Foreign Policy: 'War Against Terror': Propaganda, Software, Electronic Warfare

Question

• Where do you get information from in order to have an informed opinion about these topics/issues/dilemmas?

Where do we get our information from?

• Don't bother• First Hand Experience• Newspapers & Magazines • Radio & Television: News/Current Affairs/Special

Features/Satirical Reviews• Academic & Professional Journals• The Web: Websites, eJournals, electronic databases• Each other: Conversations, Chatrooms, Blogs, Wikis

There are issues of truthfulness, bias, completeness and responsibility for getting it right e.g. dontdatehimgirl.com

Electronic Surveillance

“Big Brother is watching: Not in 1984 but in 2002”

Source: http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/002285.html

Entitlement to Protection:Big Brother will look after us

• Police and security and intelligence services are increasingly turning toward video surveillance technology as the answer to terrorist threats and the public's demand for security.

• There has been a surge in the number of surveillance cameras in Britain in the last couple of years (now one camera for every twelve people).

• In most cases, cameras are hidden from view or disguised so as to be undetected by those being filmed. Many are privately operated

• Some cameras can swivel to locate you and zoom in for a closer view.

You are watched at work

You are watched in public places

• “This image is a still taken from a shopping centre CCTV camera in 1993. It was released by the shopping centre to the police and the public in the hunt for Jamie Bulger's killers. It is contended to be in the public domain.”

Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/bulger-cctv-jpg

Sometimes you set out to be watched

Picture: Jess Hurd/ reportdigital.co.uk

Source: http://www.israelnewsagency.com/

You are watched in your car• Britain is about to enhance its reputation as the

surveillance capital of the West with a global first: recording as many as 50 million car movements a day and storing details in a vast databank with date, time, and location stamps.

• A network of thousands of cameras harnessed to software will read car license plates, check them against a central database, and alert police to suspected criminals or terrorists. The system will also check that the vehicle is properly taxed, insured and MOT’d as well as helping to catch drivers using mobile phones or failing to wear a seat belt.

• In regional trial runs, the number of arrests per officer increased by a factor of ten.

Source: CSM>World>Europe January 2006 http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0111/p01s01-woeu.html

It’s not just number plates that can be recognized.

• The Police Information Technology Organisation aims to create a national database of still and video facial images, tattoos, and other imagery linked to criminal biographical information. They are also looking into how they can incorporate facial recognition software into the mugshot database for the police forces of England, Scotland, and Wales. Source: (Jan. 16, 2006) Source: http://www.epic.org/privacy/facerecognition/

• The British national identity card is to be introduced in 2008, under the provisions of the Identity Cards Act

2006 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_national_identity_card

Do you want to be labelled, tagged and recorded?

• The organizations and individuals cited by Privacy International as doing the most to erode personal privacy in 2004 included MP Margaret Hodge, the NHS and the

Office of National Statistics .

Surveillance at School

• In Santee, California, college officials have instituted an extensive system of camera monitors that can track over 2000 students as they move around the college.

• They have recently added face recognition capabilities to the system so that their computer systems can automatically detect when people are in places they are not authorized to be by reference to the student database.

Have Your Say

• Imagine that your school/college is considering the adoption of a similar system, in order to improve the safety and security of students, staff and university property.

• What do you think about the idea?

• If you support the use of surveillance systems in schools and colleges – raise your hand.

How to text your views to the SMS Whiteboard

Text SAY followed by a space and your

view

0762 480 3759

• The Whiteboard • The Poll

Some Food for Thought

• As citizens of a modern, democratic first world information economy our movements and activities are watched, recorded and catalogued more closely than in most totalitarian states.

• We also have the potential, through the tools and technologies of electronic democracy to participate in politics and to influence the decisions that affect us in any and every aspect of our everyday lives.

• Technology is useful, but we must not lose sight of the ethical issues in the context of its use.

Further Information

• If you are interested in studying Information Systems visit CEMS StudentsOnline