Surveillance grows constantly, especially in the countries of the global north. Although as a set of practices it is as old as history itself, systematic surveillance became a routine and inescapable part of everyday life in modern times and is now, more often than not, dependent on information and communication technologies (ICTs). Indeed, it now makes some sense to talk of ‘surveillance societies’, so pervasive is organizational monitoring of many kinds. Fast developing technologies combined with new governmental and commercial strategies mean that new modes of surveillance proliferate,...

Surveillance grows constantly, especially in the countries of the global north. Although as a set of practices it is as old as history itself, systematic surveillance became a routine and inescapable part of everyday life in modern times and is now, more often than not, dependent on information and communication technologies (ICTs). Indeed, it now makes some sense to talk of ‘surveillance societies’, so pervasive is organizational monitoring of many kinds. Fast developing technologies combined with new governmental and commercial strategies mean that new modes of surveillance proliferate, making surveillance expansion hard to follow, let alone analyse or regulate.