Countersurveillance

The proliferation of online/offline techniques for monitoring and controlling populations has ushered us into a vocabulary once used by paranoid spies. As the tracking of life becomes ubiquitous with networked communications devices and CCTV cameras, countersurveillance is both about avoiding the capture of surveillance’s gaze, as well as the right to claims on how our personal data ought to be used. The magnitude of data generated from surveillance systems requires algorithmic processing. Algorithms are written to detect atypical behavior patterns, triggering scrutiny when measured against ‘normality’.. In this regard, the social measure of abnormality is both functionally and conceptually bound to the technicality of surveillance and countersurveillance, where technologies of control are directly infused by social standards.