News and Events

The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group wants to hear from anyone who has been targeted by the U.S.

Queen's-led Surveillance Project awarded $2+ million Major Collaborative Research Initiative grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Determining how and why everyday people are being watched by public and private organizations - and the social consequences of this expanding surveillance - will be the focus of a new $2.5-million collaborative research project based at Queen's.

Called The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting, the project was announced today as a Major Collaborative Research Initiative supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The Queen's initiative will be led by Sociology professor David Lyon, director of the university's internationally renowned, multidisciplinary research group, the Surveillance Project.

Detlev Zwick,
York University,
"Marketing as Bioproduction:
The Customer Database as New Means of Production",
Tuesday, November 20th,
12:30pm to 1:30pm.

Detlev Zwick
Associate Professor
Department of Marketing
Schulich School of Business
York University

Marketing as Bioproduction: The Customer Database as New Means of Production

Tuesday, November 20th
Location: Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room D411
Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm

This presentation uses data collected during an ongoing ethnographic study of a small customer intelligence company to argue that new forms of database marketing are best described as customer production process that rely on the exploitation of consumer life. We suggest that the work of such firms to visualize consumption, or rather consumer life phenomena, at the microscopic level leads to a reorganization of the gaze of marketers and the way marketing practice configures and controls spaces of operation and forms of capitalization. Therefore the fundamental question we pose in this article is how should we understand marketing in the age of the information machine?

If you have nothing to hide, do you have nothing to fear?

Surveillance Awareness Week (SAW) 26 - 30 November 2007 at Queen's University.

Join The Surveillance Project for a week-long examination of our global surveillance society. Keep an eye out for lunchtime speakers, film screenings, and other special events all week long. Free and open to everyone.

Monday 26 November

12 - 1 pm: Why Watching Works: Surveillance in Daily Life
David Lyon, Director, The Surveillance Project;
Queen's Research Chair, Sociology; and Killam Fellow

Somehow, there's power in watching, but what is it? Whether literal watching (CCTV) or metaphorical watching (internet data trails) our daily lives are affected. Not only do our "private" spaces and activities become "public" -- we do things differently because we're watched. But does this mean that "they" have us in their grip? Not necessarily, but we may conform more, even as we continue to "make choices."

Chernoff Hall room 211

Tuesday 27 November

12 - 1 pm: Facebook and online surveillance: It could happen to you (and it probably does!)