Surveillance is a fundamental phenomenon of modern societies. As the French philosopher Michel Foucault (1975) pointed out, several institutions (e.g. prisons, asylums, hospitals, schools, factories) and systems have been set up to monitor, track, manage and control the population, and as such the behaviour of individuals in these societies. Modern surveillance is closely linked to the development and spread of communication technologies. In contemporary societies, surveillance is no longer just about using visual tools, such as security cameras or closed circuit TV (CCTV) or interception, but also includes capturing, collecting and analysing data generated on computer networks. All of this points to the ubiquitous nature of surveillance in information societies, as surveillance tools and systems are increasingly interconnected. In this way, smart devices, applications, and social media, which are becoming more and more commonplace every day, can not only contribute to the democratization of technology and knowledge, but also to the increasing control and influence of various power organizations and systems over the population.
As such, surveillance is a contentious phenomenon, as it can serve to protect persons, things and places being monitored, but it can also be a tool of invading privacy. Surveillance Studies, which critically examine this topic, emphasize the negative characteristics of the phenomenon, demonstrating control and power between observer and observed. Surveillance is characterized by information asymmetry, as observed individuals know less about observers than reversely. In addition, this activity is hidden, even if observed persons are aware of the activity, they have no control over the handling of their information. Furthermore, the observed individuals have no way to avoid digital surveillance.
David Lyon, leading scholar in the field of Surveillance Studies, distinguished three forms of surveillance in cyberspace (1998): related to marketing, to employment, and to security and policing. Digital technology has provided companies with new marketing tools for tracking and profiling customers in order to cluster their behaviour by social type and location; digital monitoring and control of employees' activities in the workplace has become commonplace; and digital surveillance is being carried out by governmental organizations such as the police and secret services.
