Handbook of Surveillance Technologies (3rd Ed) - The Real Faces of ...

Handbook of Surveillance Technologies
The Late 1990s—Reorganization, More Openness, Yet More Surveillance
By the mid-1990s, Global Positioning Systems (GPSS), which permit the precise pinpointing
of a location through satellite technologies, were showing up in discount catalogs at consumer
prices. These and other tracking devices were now used on prison inmates on parole or
with limited movement privileges, and were available for children or older people who might
wander unattended. By the late-1990s, they were selling for less than $200 and now they are
incorporated into mobile phones. Pinhole cameras and digital camcorders came down in price,
as well. Sophisticated surveillance devices had entered the mainstream.
The late 1990s was a time of significant change in computer-networked nations—unprecedented
information-sharing became possible through the Internet. Changes in the media reflected
changes in society. Broadcast stations have always vied for ‘ratings’ (a tally of viewers)
and will sometimes take risks when ratings decline. New spy devices made it possible to create
a new genre of television programming similar to the Candid Camera concept, but far more
intrusive. Real events and real people (as opposed to actors with scripts) are surveilled and
recorded (‘caught on tape’), often without the surveillee’s knowledge. Small cameras were put
in the hands and vehicles of various law enforcement personnel as they went about their jobs
and the results broadcast to the viewing public either prerecorded or live. These voyeuristic
reality shows have become explosively popular.
A similar change occurred in daytime TV, with talk shows gradually edging out many longstanding
soap operas. Coincident with the rise of ‘real’ TV has been intercommunication on the
Internet in a no-holds-barred, ‘truth’-oriented, uncensored forums in which the most intimate
details are described in detail for anyone with an Internet connection to see.
By the turn of the millennium, the number of ‘taboo’ subjects in North American society
had significantly decreased and personal and professional ‘spying’ on people’s lives continued
unabated. Many who would have objected to having their own private activities recorded and
broadcast, didn’t mind intrusion into other people’s private lives for the sake of entertainment.
This double standard continues to pervade many policies on the use of surveillance devices.
A side-effect of the public appetite for open access to information, coupled with relative
economic stability in the U.S. in the 1990s, appears to have been a greater willingness, on the
part of government, to reveal information that hitherto would have been kept quiet, even if
declassified. This trend was evident in the early 1990s and became more apparent by the end
of the decade.
In 1997, the Openness Advisory Panel was established within the U.S. Department of Energy
(DoE) to provide advice regarding classification and declassification policies and programs
as well as other aspects of the Openness Initiative. It further was tasked with public relations
through:
An independent evaluation of all DOE policies and procedures relating to enhancing
public trust and confidence in the Department and its programs, with special emphasis
on classification, declassification and openness policies;
....
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The Panel will focus on issues of primary interest to the public and on measures to
ensure the Department remains responsive to public policy needs and continues to
foster confidence with the public and the Congress....
One example of this policy of ‘openness’ was the distribution of a 1998 organizational chart
of the NSA Operations Directorate, a kind of document that would previously have been secret.
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