Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/213969 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Citation: 
[Journal:] Internet Policy Review [ISSN:] 2197-6775 [Volume:] 2 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society [Place:] Berlin [Year:] 2013 [Pages:] 1-11
Publisher: 
Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin
Abstract: 
Information technologies now play a huge role in both personal and institutional life, playing the role of a global communications medium. As our means of interaction increasingly centre on the internet, there is a desire from nation states to exercise control and obtain access to the communications of citizens. The stated reasons for this access and control are to prevent or investigate crimes, and to protect national security. This article argues that mass untargeted surveillance of internet-based communications is an excessive tool with respect to its potential for abuse against both society and individuals, and that its ability to prevent crime or terrorism are limited. By looking at existing technologies and example cases where surveillance has been applied, this article demonstrates that there are both inherent mathematical and technical limits to the potential for surveillance to achieve broad-scale prevention of crime and terrorism. In addition, the potential of surveillance to result in real harm to society necessarily places severe limits on how this technique should be applied in a free and democratic society.
Subjects: 
Surveillance
Intelligence services
Base rate fallacy
Interception
Fundamental principles
Predictive algorithms
Privacy
Security
Content data
Communications data
Bundestrojaner
National Security Agency (NSA)
PRISM
Tempora
Encryption
Liability
Transparency
Cyber security
Content
Censorship
Filtering
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
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Document Type: 
Article

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