Internet and Surveillance: The Challenges of Web 2.0 and Social Media (Routledge Studies in Science, Technology and Society)

The Internet has been transformed in the past years from a system primarily oriented on information provision into a medium for communication and community-building. The notion of "Web 2.0", social software, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have emerged in this context. With such platforms comes the massive provision and storage of personal data that are systematically evaluated, marketed, and used for targeting users with advertising. In a world of global economic competition, economic crisis, and fear of terrorism after 9/11, both corporations and state institutions have a growing interest in accessing this personal data. Here, contributors explore this changing landscape by addressing topics such as commercial data collection by advertising, consumer sites and interactive media; self-disclosure in the social web; surveillance of file-sharers; privacy in the age of the internet; civil watch-surveillance on social networking sites; and networked interactive surveillance in transnational space. This book is a result of a research action launched by the intergovernmental network COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). Read more... Abstract: The Internet has been transformed in the past years from a system primarily oriented on information provision into a medium for communication and community-building. The notion of "Web 2.0", social software, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have emerged in this context. With such platforms comes the massive provision and storage of personal data that are systematically evaluated, marketed, and used for targeting users with advertising. In a world of global economic competition, economic crisis, and fear of terrorism after 9/11, both corporations and state institutions have a growing interest in accessing this personal data. Here, contributors explore this changing landscape by addressing topics such as commercial data collection by advertising, consumer sites and interactive media; self-disclosure in the social web; surveillance of file-sharers; privacy in the age of the internet; civil watch-surveillance on social networking sites; and networked interactive surveillance in transnational space. This book is a result of a research action launched by the intergovernmental network COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Contents......Page 8 List of Figures ......Page 12 List of Tables ......Page 14 Preface......Page 16 PART I: Theoretical Foundations of Internet Surveil......Page 50 1. Introduction: Internet and Surveillance......Page 22 2. Critique of the Political Economy of Web 2.0 Surveillance......Page 52 3. Exploitation in the Data Mine......Page 92 4. Key Features of Social Media Surveillance......Page 110 5. Jean-François Lyotard and the Inhumanity of Internet Surveillance......Page 127 6. Critical Internet Surveillance Studies and Economic Surveillance......Page 145 PART II Case Studies, Applications, And Empirical Perspectives Of Internet Surveillance Studies ......Page 166 7. A Critical Empirical Case Study of Consumer Surveillance on Web 2.0......Page 168 8. Disciplining the Consumer......Page 191 9. Socializing the City......Page 208 10. What Do IT Professionals Think About Surveillance?......Page 219 11. Fields, Territories, and Bridges......Page 241 12. When Transparency Isn’t Transparent......Page 260 13. Privacy, Surveillance, and Self-Disclosure in the Social Web......Page 276 14. How Does Privacy Change in the Age of the Internet?......Page 294 PART III: Conclusion......Page 316 15. Postface......Page 318 Index......Page 338