Harnessing Technology to Resist Surveillance: A Case Study of Low-Income Individuals in West Philadelphia

• In Event: CAT Interactive Paper Session 2

Abstract

Individuals in society who have been excluded or marginalized are often the first ones who are surveilled. (Ogura, 2006) Many of these individuals are racial minorities and/or are poor, whose “bad situation is defined by present neo-liberal globalization and the ‘War on Terror.’ (Ogura, 2006, p. 292) While online surveillance can affect anyone who conducts work online, “chronically underserved communities are potentially more vulnerable to the harmful effects of surveillant technologies.” (Gangadharan, 2012)

This paper explores how low-socioeconomic status (SES) individuals in West Philadelphia harness technology and other techniques to resist surveillance and protect their privacy. More specifically, this paper asks:
• How do low-socioeconomic status individuals living in West Philadelphia experience surveillance and privacy issues?
• What types of responses, both technological and non-technological, do they engage in to counter privacy and surveillance issues?

There is limited research focused on how low-socioeconomic status individuals utilize technology to avoid surveillance and protect their privacy, despite the fact that vulnerable populations are more likely to be surveilled by the state. My research questions will help to detangle the homogenous concept of privacy currently held by many in the field by examining the role information and communication technologies play in the lives of low-SES individuals in West Philadelphia. Key words associated with this research paper include surveillance, low-income, privacy, technology, and low-socioeconomic status.

I expect to find individuals ambivalent about the role of technology in their lives, in part because of technology’s dual-edged nature. I also anticipate I will find that individuals are uncertain about how to use technology to improve their privacy and evade surveillance, although some may have found creative ways of doing so.

Author

• Jennifer Henrichsen, U of Pennsylvania