Privacy Without Power: What Privacy Research Can Learn from Surveillance Studies

Marwick, Alice E.

doi:10.24908/ss.v20i4.16009

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Another theme is one of methodological experimentation, which could include literary or artistic approaches, such as "speculative fabulation" (Veel and Wellendorf 2022) or "ghost methodology" of tracing hidden violence (Glasbeek 2022), or it could include innovations to empirically study-and theorize-secretive policing and security apparatuses or algorithmic processes (Brayne 2022). 10 A final theme is that of maintaining a critical focus on issues of power, inequality, domination, and violence, particularly as the technological and institutional landscapes shift (Andrejevic 2022;Ball 2022;Crooks 2022;Fussey 2022;Orr and Magnet 2022;Marwick 2022;Sadowski 2022), authoritarianisms resurge (Akbari 2022), and environmental and health crises grow (Browne, Klauser, and Murakami Wood 2022;Sung 2022).…”

Section: Overview Of Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…He cautions: "The prospect of total immersion is one in which we do not do things 'on' the platform but 'in' the enclosure," leading to a destructive "recession of the social" that reduces opportunities for collective action and depletes the common good (391). Alice Marwick's (2022) contribution notes the avoidance of discussions of power in much privacy scholarship and shows, through a critical analysis of TikTok content, how privacy debates could be revitalized by drawing upon surveillance studies' attention to power. She writes: "By integrating concepts that are well-established in surveillance studies, privacy research can take more holistic approaches that center privacy violations, especially on marginalized and racialized populations, paving the way for community and collective solutions" (403).…”

Section: Overview Of Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

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Revitalizing Dissent: Imperatives for Critical Surveillance Inquiry

Monahan

Wood

2022

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In this introduction to Surveillance & Society’s twentieth anniversary issue, we reflect on the journal’s role in the formation and maturation of the field and on some of the many areas in need of further study and intervention. In keeping with one of the journal’s original objectives of “encouraging debate and dissent,” we argue that it is imperative that the field reaffirm this dissenting posture. Such dissent would be primarily critical and decolonial, and it would concentrate its energies on correcting social and environmental problems. Some of the areas in need of more intensive critical inquiry are 1) surveillance / platform / data capitalism, 2) war and conflict, 3) disinformation and media manipulation, 4) racial injustice and carcerality, 5) intersectional violence and oppression, and 6) environmental crises and climate collapse. Fortunately, as many of the recent publications in the journal affirm, scholars are already moving in these directions, and we, as editors, are doing everything we can to support such critical work and the academics producing it.

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Section: Overview Of Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Overview Of Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Revitalizing Dissent: Imperatives for Critical Surveillance Inquiry

Monahan

Wood

2022

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“…By contrast, the pivot to first-party surveillance and proprietary PETs represents a privatized way of doing privacy. Divorced from a political-economic critique of surveillance business models, this approach advances an abstract view of “privacy without power” (Marwick, 2022), offering technical fixes for what are actually social problems. Even as these fixes remedy some real abuses, they reinforce marketing and technology companies’ cynical disposition toward data governance—that despite promises about empowering sovereign consumers, “privacy lies outside the purview of democracy, as do most of the important decisions about the structure and values of our communications infrastructures” (Crain, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The after party: Cynical resignation in Adtech's pivot to privacy

McGuigan,

West,

Sivan-Sevilla

et al. 2023

Big Data & Society

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Digital advertising and technology companies are resigned to a new privacy imperative. They are bracing for a world where third-party tracking will be restricted by design or by law. Digital resignation typically refers to how companies cultivate a sense of powerlessness about privacy among internet users. Our paper looks through this optic from the other end of the lens: How is the digital advertising industry coping with the increasing salience of privacy? Recent developments have forced companies to implement “privacy-preserving” designs—or at least promise some semblance of privacy. Yet, the industry remains dependent on flows of data and means of identification to enable still-desired targeting, measurement, and optimization. Our paper analyzes this contradiction by looking at systems that aim to replicate existing functionalities while protecting user “privacy.” We call this a form of “cynical resignation” and characterize its key maneuvers as follows: (a) sanitizing surveillance; (b) party-hopping; and (c) sabotage. We argue that this “cynical resignation” to a privacy imperative represents a policy failure. In the absence of decisive interventions into the underlying business models of data capitalism, companies offer techno-solutionism and self-regulations that seem to conform to new laws and norms while reinforcing commitments to data-driven personalization. This may benefit the largest tech companies, since their privileged access to first-party data will make more companies reliant on them, and their computational power will be even more valuable in a world where modeling is used to compensate for the loss of third-party data and traditional methods of personal identification.

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“…Privacy always involves power dynamics. Marwick contends that "it is impossible to understand how privacy operates without a sophisticated understanding of power" [53]. Indeed, key power relations within our pedagogical tradition are considered a necessary prerequisite for learning [36].…”

Section: Networked Privacy and The E-proctoring Landscapementioning

confidence: 99%

Instructor Perceptions of e-Proctoring Software

Chaudhry

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The COVID-19 pandemic motivated higher education institutions to adopt the use of e-proctoring software as a means to maintain academic integrity. This study explores the tension between student privacy and academic integrity from instructors' perspective. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with 19 university instructors, our findings delineate the competing factors influencing instructors' adoption or avoidance of e-proctored assessments: academic integrity, the online remote format, logistical considerations such as class size, departmental policies, and privacy considerations. We analysed instructors' specific privacy attitudes towards e-proctoring, and perspectives regarding student privacy and institutional data protection practices.Lastly, we evaluated instructors' appraisals on the efficacy of e-proctoring software.We found that most instructors deprioritized privacy considerations when deciding whether to adopt e-proctoring, but viewed academic integrity as the topmost inviolable priority. Overall, we provide insight into the complexities of managing privacy and competing priorities from the instructors' perspective, and offer recommendations for instructors and institutions.

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Privacy Without Power: What Privacy Research Can Learn from Surveillance Studies

Cited by 9 publications

References 9 publications

Revitalizing Dissent: Imperatives for Critical Surveillance Inquiry

Revitalizing Dissent: Imperatives for Critical Surveillance Inquiry

The after party: Cynical resignation in Adtech's pivot to privacy

Instructor Perceptions of e-Proctoring Software

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