word of the week - sousveillance
Published 1 year, 3 months ago in My life. 
Sousveillance is the recording or monitoring of real or apparent authority figures by others, particularly those who are generally the subject of surveillance.
The term “sousveillance” stems from the contrasting French words sur, meaning “above”, and sous, meaning “below”, i.e. “surveillance” denotes the “eye-in-the-sky” watching from above, whereas “sousveillance” denotes bringing the camera or other means of observation down to human level, either physically (mounting cameras on people rather than on buildings), or hierarchically (ordinary people doing the watching, rather than higher authorities or architectures doing the watching).
Inverse surveillance is the concept of citizens to photograph police, shoppers to photograph shopkeepers, or passengers to photograph taxicab drivers. It could also mean telling the telemarketer who just rang you that you are recording the conversation.
Personal sousveillance is the art, science, and technology of personal experience capture, processing, storage, retrieval, and transmission. This could be something as simple as a weblog or phone camera or something more technically complicated such as a cyborglog.
An emerging theory seeks to demonstrate the equilibrium between surveillance and sousveillance. Current “equiveillance theory” holds that sousveillance, to some extent, often reduces or eliminates the need for surveillance. Crimes, for example, might then be solved by way of collaboration among the citizenry rather than through the watching over the citizenry from above. This is already happening; one example is the US police beating of Rodney King.
What does this mean for us? As usual a convergence of newly emerged technologies has caught governments and legal professionals on the back foot:
If you acting legally and are under surveillance is it legal to use sousveillance on your watchers? Imagine walking into your bank and videoing the experience of your transaction with teller.
If an individual wants to go several steps further than keeping a diary and wants to keep a digital record of what they do, who they talk to etc. do they have a legal right to do so?
If they do, does this make “No Photography” signs meaningless?
If you are stopped from making your own video of a particular event is subsequent video from the authority that prevented you admissible in court?
Personally I think HG Wells got it wrong in ‘1984’ because he did not foresee the advances in technology that allow sousveillance. Not only can we watch the watchers but we can use this technology to protect ourselves. Instead of a personal attack alarm imagine wearing a personal video camera constantly transmitting pictures of where you are and what you see direct to the internet. Would that make you feel safe?
6 Responses to “word of the week - sousveillance”
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It would make me feel safe. Good citizens have nothing to hide. The more surveillance (be it from above or below), the better.
I can tell you from personal experience the watchers do not like to be watched, and by the watchers I do mean those of the “big brother” kind.
Watching can be a dangerous “game” it leads to paranoia just look at your average intellegence officer.
‘nebula’, you obviously have not lived long enough to know of McCarthyism, fascism, communism and many other ‘isms’ being perpetrated by governments of the day.
Just consider the benign Neighbourhood Watch, a wonderful idea except it is run by Police! The very people whose job it is to put you in the nick for some misdemeaner, penalise you for some innocent parking offence, or chase you to an accident if you don’t stop to get your breath tested.
I am actually supportive of Neighbourhood Watch, but going beyond of what is reasonable happens all the time. We do not watch out for that! And governments are the worst offenders of abuse of power. Killings and misfortune are greater as a result of goverment decisions and actions then individuals or groups combined (just think of Vietnam war or Iraq war).
It’s not whether you do surveillance or sousveillance. It is what you do with that that matters. My view is that inappropriate behaviours and violence should be controlled. But the best way is through community peer pressure. If you give away your power to deal with such problems to some other authority, especially governments, you can expect problems in its execution through misuse of their powers.
ps. HG if I’m not mistaken it was George Orwell not H.G.Wells that was responsible for 1984.
its a worry.
lol. You’re absolutely right of course viva. Don’t know what came over me, must have had a “senior moment”.