Surveillance After September 11

by David Lyon

Prominent among the quests for post-9/11 security are developments in surveillance, especially at national borders. These developments are not new, but many of them have been extended and intensified. The result? More and more people and populations are counted as “suspicious” and, at the same time, surveillance techniques become increasingly opaque and secretive. Lyon argues that in the aftermath of 9/11 there have been qualitative changes in the security diverse databases containing personal information are being integrated; biometric identifiers, such as iris scans, are becoming more popular; consumer data are merged with those obtained for policing and intelligence, both nationally and across borders. This all contributes to the creation of ever-widening webs of surveillance. But these systems also sort people into categories for differential treatment, the most obvious case being that of racial profiling. This book assesses the consequences of these trends. Lyon argues that while extraordinary legal measures and high-tech systems are being adopted, promises made on their behalf - that terrorism can be prevented - are hard to justify. Furthermore, intensifying surveillance will have social consequences whose effects could be the undermining of social trust and of democratic participation.

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2003

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because it was heavily referenced in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. That book dealt with more current surveillance of consumers by private companies, while this one deals with surveillance of citizens by the government (though I think both books would probably argue that those are increasingly becoming one and the same). This was published in 2003, and is more of a social/cultural analysis of post-9/11 surveillance than a comprehensive history, which I realize now is more of what I was looking for. I wanted more of a deep dive into specifics like the Patriot Act, and this doesn't really do that. Instead, it's a snapshot of what was going on at the time in terms of government goals and public understanding and attitudes around surveillance, while also looking back and ahead, arguing that 9/11 helped to accelerate surveillance practices that were already underway. It also identifies consequences that will come to pass if we continue to rely so heavily on technology for surveillance (...and we know what happened there).

It was both unsettling and at times boring to read this book nearly 25 years after 9/11. There's a lot of talk about how searchable databases and this new thing called algorithms can be used for profiling, and how the government can now integrate multiple sources of data, including consumer data from the private sector for surveillance. It is hard to imagine that ever being a new and novel idea now that we're almost 25 years out, and it was discussed so often that the book began to feel a little repetitive. Still, this moment in history is so important toward understanding the topic of surveillance that it felt worth reading something of the time.