Origins of Surveillance
This French philosopher introduced the concept of the “panopticon.”
Michel Foucalt
This platform, founded in 2004, normalized real-name accounts and large-scale data collection
This common phrase describes how users trade data for free online services
“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product”
This 2018 European regulation gave users stronger control over personal data
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
This technology uses facial recognition to track people across digital and physical spaces
biometric surveillance
In the 90's, this US law began to regulate how companies could store and use consumer data
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
Twitter’s trending topics and retweet system allow the platform to track and influence this type of activity
real-time public conversation
Platforms monitor user activity in order to deliver these personalized online messages
targeted advertisements
Browser features like “Do Not Track” were designed to limit this form of monitoring
third-party tracking
AI-driven “sentiment analysis” monitors not only what you say but also this
emotional tone
Before social media, this type of online community, popular in the 80s–90s, let moderators track user posts and activity.
Online forums
Instagram’s 2012 acquisition by Facebook gave the company access to this type of user data
photos and location metadata
When companies analyze “likes” to predict traits like sexuality or politics, this kind of profiling is occurring
psychographic profiling
In 2021, Apple introduced this iOS feature to block apps from following users across services
App Tracking Transparency (ATT)
The metaverse could expand surveillance by capturing this type of bodily data
movement data
The rise of “cookies” in the mid-90s enabled companies to do this to user activity across websites
track browsing behavior
TikTok’s algorithm is often described as this kind of system, constantly adjusting to maximize attention
recommendation engine
This 2019 Netflix documentary exposed how social media manipulates users through surveillance-driven design
The Social Dilemma
The “right to be forgotten” was first legally recognized in this region
European Union
Predictive policing uses social media data to anticipate this
criminal activity
This U.S. intelligence program, revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013, exposed mass government digital surveillance
PRISM
In 2018, this scandal revealed that Facebook user data was harvested for political campaigns
Cambridge Analytica scandal
Scholars argue social media creates a “participatory panopticon,” where users also perform this type of surveillance
peer-to-peer surveillance
Ad-blockers, encryption, and VPN use are examples of this form of resistance
digital self-defense
Scholars warn that state and corporate surveillance together create this type of system
hybrid panopticon