1
SURVEILLANCE AND SOCIETY
Methods of Surveillance
3.1 Session Objectives
By the end of this session, you should be able to:
Explain the ways in which computers are used in surveillance.
Describe the importance of biometrics in surveillance.
Discuss the use of social network analysis in surveillance.
3.2. Introduction
This session takes you through the different methods used in surveillance.
3.3 Computers
The vast majority of computer surveillance involves the monitoring of data and traffic
on the Internet. In some countries, all phone calls and broadband Internet traffic
(emails, web traffic, instant messaging, etc.) are required to be available for
unimpeded real-time monitoring by federal law enforcement agencies.
There is far too much data on the Internet for human investigators to manually search
through all of it. Therefore, automated Internet surveillance computers sift through the
vast amount of intercepted Internet traffic to identify and report to human investigators
the traffic that is considered interesting or suspicious. This process is regulated by
targeting certain "trigger" words or phrases, visiting certain types of web
sites, or communicating via email or online chat with suspicious individuals or groups.
Billions of dollars per year are spent by agencies, such as the NSA, the FBI to develop,
purchase, implement, and operate systems such as Carnivore, NarusInsight, and
ECHELON to intercept and analyze all of this data to extract only the information
which is useful to law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Computers can be a surveillance target because of the personal data stored on them. If
someone is able to install software, such as the FBI's Magic Lantern and CIPAV, on a
computer system, they can easily gain unauthorized access to this data. Such software
could be installed physically or remotely. Another form of computer surveillance, known as
van Eck phreaking, involves reading electromagnetic emanations from computing devices
in order to extract data from them at distances of hundreds of meters. The NSA runs a
database known as "Pinwale", which stores and indexes large numbers of emails of
both American citizens and foreigners. Additionally, the NSA runs a program known
as PRISM, which is a data mining system that gives the United States government direct
access to information from technology companies. Through accessing this information, the
government is able to obtain search history, emails, stored information, live chats, file
transfers, and more. This program generated huge controversies in regards to surveillance
and privacy, especially from U.S. citizens.
3.4 Telephones
The official and unofficial tapping of telephone lines is widespread. In some countries laws
require that all telephone and VoIP communications be available for real-time wiretapping
by Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Two major telecommunications
companies in the U.S. - AT and Verizon have contracts with the FBI, requiring them to
keep their phone call records easily searchable and accessible for Federal agencies, in
return for $1.8 million per year. Between 2003 and 2005, the FBI sent out more than
140,000 "National Security Letters" ordering phone companies
to hand over information about their customers' calling and Internet histories. About
half of these letters requested information on U.S. citizens.
Human agents are not required to monitor most calls. Speech-to-text software creates
machine-readable text from intercepted audio, which is then processed by automated
call-analysis programs, such as those developed by agencies such as the Information
Awareness Office, or companies such as Verint, and Narus, which search for certain
words or phrases, to decide whether to dedicate a human agent to the call.
Law enforcement and intelligence services in the United Kingdom and the United States
possess technology to activate the microphones in cell phones remotely, by accessing
phones' diagnostic or maintenance features in order to listen to conversations that take
place near the person who holds the phone.
The StinRay tracker is an example of one of these tools used to monitor cell phone usage
in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally developed for counterterrorism
purposes by the military, they work by broadcasting powerful signals that cause nearby
cell phones to transmit their IMSI number, just as they would to normal cell phone
towers. Once the phone is connected to the device, there is no way for the user to know
that they are being tracked. The operator of the stingray is able to extract information
such as location, phone calls, and text messages, but it is widely believed that the
capabilities of the StingRay extend much further. A lot of controversy surrounds the
StingRay because of its powerful capabilities and the secrecy that surrounds it.
Mobile phones are also commonly used to collect location data. The geographical location
of a mobile phone (and thus the person carrying it) can be determined easily even when
the phone is not being used, using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the
differences in time for a signal to travel from the cell phone to each of several cell towers
near the owner of the phone. The legality of such techniques has been questioned in the
United States, in particular whether a court warrant is
required. Records for carrier alone (Sprint), showed that in a given year federal lawone
enforcement agencies requested customer location data 8 million times.
3.5 Cameras
Surveillance cameras are video cameras used for the purpose of observing an area.
They are often connected to a recording device or IP network, and may be watched by
a security guard or law enforcement officer. Cameras and recording equipment used
to be relatively expensive and required human personnel to monitor camera footage,
but analysis of footage has been made easier by automated software that organizes
digital video footage into a searchable database, and by video analysis software (such
as VIRAT and HumanID). The amount of footage is also drastically reduced by motion
sensors which record only when motion is detected. With cheaper production
techniques, surveillance cameras are simple and inexpensive enough to be used in
home security systems, and for everyday surveillance.
3.6 Social Network Analysis
One common form of surveillance is to create maps of social networks based on data
from social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter as well as from
traffic analysis information from phone call records such as those in the NSA call
database and others. These social network "maps" are then data mined to extract
useful information such as personal interests, friendships & affiliations, wants, beliefs,
thoughts, and activities.
Many government agencies are investing heavily in research involving social network
analysis. The intelligence community believes that the biggest threat comes from
decentralized, leaderless, geographically dispersed groups of terrorists and extremists.
These types of threats are most easily countered by finding important nodes in the
network, and removing them. To do this requires a detailed map of the network.
3.7 Biometrics
Biometric surveillance is a technology that measures and analyzes human physical
and/or behavioral characteristics for authentication, identification, or screening
purposes. Examples of physical characteristics include fingerprints, DNA, and facial
patterns. Examples of mostly behavioral characteristics include gait (a person's
manner of walking) or voice.
Facial recognition is the use of the unique configuration of a person's facial features to
accurately identify them, usually from surveillance video. Both the Department of
Homeland Security and DARPA are heavily funding research into facial recognition
systems. The Information Processing Technology Office ran a program known as
Human Identification at a Distance which developed technologies that are capable of
identifying a person at up to 500 ft (150 m) by their facial features.
Another form of behavioral biometrics, based on affective computing, involves
computers recognizing a person's emotional state based on an analysis of their facial
expressions, how fast they are talking, the tone and pitch of their voice, their posture,
and other behavioral traits. This might be used for instance to see if a person's behavior
is
suspect (looking around furtively, "tense" or "angry" facial expressions, waving arms,
etc.).
A more recent development is DNA profiling, which looks at some of the major markers
in the body's DNA to produce a match. The FBI is spending $1 billion to build a new
biometric database, which will store DNA, facial recognition data, iris/retina (eye)
data, fingerprints, palm prints, and other biometric data of people living in the United
States.
The Los Angeles Police Department is installing automated facial recognition and
license plate recognition devices in its squad cars, and providing handheld face
scanners, which officers will use to identify people while on patrol.
Facial thermographs are in development, which allow machines to identify certain
emotions in people such as fear or stress, by measuring the temperature generated by
blood flow to different parts of the face. Law enforcement officers believe that this has
potential for them to identify when a suspect is nervous, which might indicate that
they are hiding something, lying, or worried about something.
3.8 Aerial Surveillance
Aerial surveillance is the gathering of surveillance, usually visual imagery or video,
from an airborne vehicle—such as an unmanned aerial vehicle, helicopter, or spy
plane. Military surveillance aircraft use a range of sensors (e.g. radar) to monitor the
battlefield.
Digital imaging technology, miniaturized computers, and numerous other
technological advances over the past decade have contributed to rapid advances in
aerial surveillance hardware such as micro-aerial vehicles, forward-looking infrared,
and high-resolution imagery capable of identifying objects at extremely long
distances. For instance, the MQ-9 Reaper a U.S. drone plane used for domestic
operations by the Department of Homeland Security, carries cameras that are capable
of
identifying an object the size of a milk carton from altitudes of 30,000 feet (9.1 km),
and has forward looking infrared devices that can detect the heat from a human body
at distances of up to 60 kilometers (37 mi).
3.9 Data Mining and Profiling
Data mining is the application of statistical techniques and programmatic algorithms
to discover previously unnoticed relationships within the data. Data profiling in this
context is the process of assembling information about a particular individual or
group in order to generate a profile — that is, a picture of their patterns and behavior.
Data profiling can be an extremely powerful tool for psychological and social network
analysis. A skilled analyst can discover facts about a person that they might not even
be consciously aware of themselves.
Economic (such as credit card purchases) and social (such as telephone calls and
emails) transactions in modern society create large amounts of stored data and
records. In the past, this data was documented in paper records, leaving a "paper trail",
or
was simply not documented at all. Correlation of paper-based records was a laborious
process—it required human intelligence operators to manually dig through
documents, which was time-consuming and incomplete, at best.
But today many of these records are electronic, resulting in an "electronic trail". Every use
of a bank machine, payment by credit card, use of a phone card, call from home, checked
out library book, rented video, or otherwise complete recorded transaction generates an
electronic record. Public records—such as birth, court, tax and other records—are
increasingly being digitized and made available online. In addition, due to laws like
CALEA, web traffic and online purchases are also available for profiling. Electronic record-
keeping makes data easily collectable, storable, and accessible—so that high-volume,
efficient aggregation and analysis is possible at significantly lower costs.
Information relating to many of these individual transactions is often easily available
because it is generally not guarded in isolation, since the information, such as the title
of a movie a person has rented, might not seem sensitive. However, when many such
transactions are aggregated they can be used to assemble a detailed profile revealing
the actions, habits, beliefs, locations frequented, social connections, and preferences of
the
individual. This profile is then used, by programs such as ADVISE and TALON, to
determine whether the person is a military, criminal, or political threat.
3.10 Satellite Imagery
Countries can authorize to access imagery from military intelligence Reconnaissance
satellites and Reconnaissance aircraft sensors which can now be used to observe the
activities of citizens. The satellites and aircraft sensors will be able to penetrate cloud
cover, detect chemical traces, and identify objects in buildings and "underground
bunkers", and will provide real-time video at much higher resolutions than the still-
images produced by programs such as Google Earth.
3.11 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
RFID tagging is the use of very small electronic devices (called "RFID tags") which are
applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of
identification and tracking using radio waves. The tags can be read from several
meters away. They are extremely inexpensive, costing a few cents per piece, so they
can
be inserted into many types of everyday products without significantly increasing
the
price, and can be used to track and identify these objects for a variety of purposes.
Some companies appear to be "tagging" their workers by incorporating RFID tags in
employee ID badges. Workers in U.K. considered strike action in protest of having
themselves tagged; they felt that it was dehumanizing to have all of their movements
tracked with RFID chips. Some critics have expressed fears that people will soon be
tracked and scanned everywhere they go. On the other hand, RFID tags in newborn
baby ID bracelets put on by hospitals have foiled kidnappings.
3.12 GPS Tracking
A GPS tracking unit, geo-tracking unit, or simply tracker is a navigation device
normally on a vehicle, asset, person or animal that uses the Global Positioning System
(GPS) to determine its movement and determine its geographic position (geotracking) to
determine its location.
Locations are stored in the tracking unit or transmitted to an Internet-connected device
using the cellular network, radio or satellite modem embedded in the unit or WiFi
work worldwide.
Various companies buy position and track data for marketing. Also used for military
and criminal, to shut down and pick up repossession/thefts and find truck loads.
Tracks can be map displayed in real time, with GPS tracking software and
smartphones with GPS capability.
3.13 Corporate surveillance
Corporate surveillance is the monitoring of a person or group's behavior by a
corporation. The data collected is most often used for marketing purposes or sold to
other corporations, but is also regularly shared with government agencies. It can be
used as a form of business intelligence, which enables the corporation to better tailor
their products and/or services to be desirable by their customers. Although there is a
common belief that monitoring can increase productivity, it can also create
consequences such as increasing chances of deviant behavior and creating
punishments that are not equitable to their actions.
3.14 Session summary
This session presented the methods and processes of surveillance.
3.15 Student Activity
i.
Explain the different methods of surveillance.
ii.
Discuss the importance of social network analysis in surveillance.
3.16 Further Readings/References
i.
Steiner, H. & Veel, K. (2014). Invisibility Studies: Surveillance, Transparency
and the Hidden in Contemporary Culture. New York: Peter Lang AG,
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften. ISBN-13: 978-3034309851
ii.
Fuchs, C., Boersma, K., Albrechtslund, A., Sandoval, M. (2012). Internet and
Surveillance: The Challenges of Web 2.0 and Social Media. London: Routledge.
ISBN-13: 978-0415633642
iii.
Freidewald, M., Burgess, P. J., Cas, J., Bellanova, R. & Peissl, W. (2017).
Surveillance, Privacy and Security: Citizens’ Perspectives. London: Routledge.
ISBN-13: 978-1138649248
