Surveillance Essay
Basic Concepts of New Media
Dr. Philip N. Howard
Department Communication
Write a 500-word essay about the ways in which you leave a data trail in one full 24-hour period. Electronic surveillance occurs in obvious ways, from credit card purchases, bank transactions, and email logs, but also occurs in surreptitious ways. Means of collecting data about you include:
Closed and open-circuit security cameras
Credit card purchases, both amount spent and particular consumer goods
Bank machines
Email logs
Listening to music online
Telephone records
Library bar codes
Meal cards
Bus cards
Highway toll cards
Supermarket cards
Web site cookies
Web site spy ware
Your Surveillance Diary. The surveillance diary will be the raw data source for your essay. Spend one full 24-hour period observing the ways you are electronically surveilled. Keep a notepad with you specifically for making notes on your data trail; make the notepad a diary of occasions where you noticed surveillance and electronic recording, and note the duration of your exposure. Once you have a diary log for a 24-hour period, do some basic research into private companies or government organizations that were collecting data on you. As part of your inspection of your own computer, you should consider installing one of the many free ad-blocking, cookie detecting software such as Ad-Aware or ZoneAlarm, to see what these programs catch. Here are instructions on how to keep a Time Diary.
The Essay. WRITE YOUR TOPIC SENTENCE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, LIKE THIS. Your topic sentence can only be one sentence long. In the beginning of your essay, identify the different ways you were surveilled and the kind of data that was collected. In the middle of your essay, write about who collected the data on you, why, and who has access to the data about you. At the end of your essay, speculate about how the surveillance data might be used. In the abstract, what might other people learn about general human behavior from the data? In particular, what might other people learn about you specifically from the data?
Assignment Goals. First, this assignment will encourage you to be aware of the electronic data trail you leave in an average day through a wide range of technologies. Second, this assignment will encourage you to develop and practice your writing style. Third, this assignment will encourage you to think philosophically and reflectively about what other people can induce from data about you.
Assignment Grading. This assignment is worth 40 points, and due at 5pm on Friday November 17th on E-submit. This assignment will be graded according to the standard grading method in the course, with expectations for good ideas, perfect spelling, and careful grammar. Label the assignment with your last name, first initial, underscore, and "surveillance". For example, if Laura Busch submits her assignment on E-submit, it would be labeled “buschl_surveillance.doc”.