News

The coronavirus pandemic highlights the need for a surveillance debate beyond ‘privacy’

By David Lyon, The Conversation, 24 May 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has stirred up a surveillance storm. Researchers rush to develop new forms of public health monitoring and tracking, but releasing personal data to private companies and governments carries risks to our individual and collective rights. COVID-19 opens the lid on a much-needed debate. Read More

The Surveillance Studies Centre COVID-19 Update

The SSC is hard at work during the global Coronavirus pandemic. The surveillance dimensions of efforts to slow the spread of the virus are tremendous and far-reaching. Indeed, they are not only global but planetary. At such a time, health-related surveillance is proposed and practiced with great urgency in the attempt to save lives, reduce suffering and to restore some...

Congratulations to Midori Ogasawara!

Dr. Ogasawara has been appointed as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria , starting January 2021. Please also see her recent publications: Ogasawara, Midori. 2019. “The Daily Us (vs. Them) from Online to Offline: Japan’s Media Manipulation and Cultural Transcoding of Collective Memories”, The Journal of Contemporary Eastern...

David Lyon: Cellphone tracking might help stamp out COVID-19. But at what cost?

By David Lyon, The Ottawa Citizen , 6 April 2020

Recently, Toronto Mayor John Tory “misspoke” at a TechTO event regarding the possibility of using cellphone tracking surveillance in the struggle against COVID-19. Ottawa’s medical officer of health, Vera Etches, noted that officials want to know if people are heeding safe-distance advice and suggested location data from phones could...

Screening Surveillance wins SSN Arts Prize 2020

The Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) Arts Prize 2020 has been awarded to sava saheli singh for her short film series (co-produced with the Surveillance Studies Centre), Screening Surveillance (2019). Additionally, the committee awarded two honourable mention awards to Pip Thornton and Ray Interactive for Newspeak (2019), and Florian van Zanwijk for Vision Processor: EN471...