Pineapple Panopticon

Information, Privacy, Surveillance

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             Lately, criticism of government surveillance has been a trend in major Hollywood blockbuster movies such as the Lego Movie that came out in February and now Captain America: Winter Soldier which was released today (April 3, 2014). While I have yet to see the latest Captain America movie, I have seen the Lego Movie and immediately noticed in the opening sequence the allusions to government surveillance and corporate control in the LEGO world in which we were being introduced to. There were video surveillance cameras all over the city, the LEGO people had to follow all the instructions and obey orders, and basically everyone lived in a bland and lifeless dystopian society overseen by an evil overlord (aptly named Lord Business).

             I thought this would make a good blog post since I am in several courses in which we have discussed the topics of surveillance and neoliberalism in depth (Privacy and Surveillance, Information Policy, and Managing Information Organisations) and that I would not have expected such overt political statements in a Lego movie. Then interestingly enough, I came across several articles saying the same thing and analysing how the movie satirises surveillance culture and our modern-day neoliberal struggles and to what one author calls “Hollywood’s answer to the Occupy movement” (Walters, 2014). Another article (http://theweek.com/article/index/256154/why-the-lego-movie-is-the-new-nineteen-eighty-four) compares the Lego Movie to George Orwell’s 1984 in that each universe has surveillance cameras constantly monitoring citizens, an omnipotent dictator controls the whereabouts and movements of the citizenry, and words and songs chosen by the government to keep the masses pacified. The similarities made between the LEGO Movie and 1984 are obvious and the themes in 1984 are just as relevant today as they ever were (or maybe more so).

 The movie also made me think of the makerspace and hakerspace movement in that they are all about the democratization of information, taking back what is meant for the people and becoming creators and not just consumers of information/knowledge. In the movie, all the LEGO citizens have to follow the building manuals and make things to the exact standards put forth by the Octan Corporation and the Masterbuilders are seen as subversive radicals and criminals who are hunted down by Lord Business and his minions. The movie shows that it is better to use your imagination and be creative and to tinker and try new ways of doing things than to just accept what the government and corporations would spoon-feed you.

 Similarly, the Captain American movie has its own criticisms on government surveillance and spying on the people for “the greater good” as a means to thwart terrorism in the name of “national security”. Captain America is the perfect choice to fight against this ultra-paranoid nation since he originally fought against one of the most fascist regimes to ever exist (the Nazis in WWII). Now he has to fight his own government who has to fight against the very organisation he is working for (S.H.I.E.L.D.). The similarities between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the CIA and CSEC can be seen as they are organisations meant to safeguard the population yet they target the very same population they are meant to protect. Clearly things are getting bad if popcorny blockbuster flicks are focusing in on the theme of government surveillance. It’s not longer an underground, conspiracy theory thinking idea that our government is spying on us and it might not be a good thing.

 http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/feb/11/lego-film-subversive-countercultural

 http://thefederalist.com/2014/02/10/is-the-lego-movie-the-most-subversive-pro-liberty-film-ever/

 http://thinkexist.com/quotation/our_character_is_what_we_do_when_we_think_no_one/208050.html

  http://www.salon.com/2014/04/03/captain_america_the_winter_soldier_marvel_takes_on_the_surveillance_state/

[xhewetso]

Just realized that this did not publish on tumblr. I am still fumbling my way around it and as of yet I have not figured out how to successfully publish original content here. If this works then it is just a brief look at an article by Newitz on RFID hacking from 2006. Things have changed from...

[clupper]

After taking this class and program, more and more have I realized that people are more than willing to give away their privacy and their rights for the sake of convenience. While I think it's important for us to be aware of these issues (and have classes on the topic and professionals like us being well versed on the topic), I am not sure there is anything we can do to stop the snowball effect that the desire for convenience and fastness has on our privacy. Even all of us who know of the dangers, still use the technology and engage in behaviours that expose our personal information on a daily basis so I am assuming the average person doesn't care sadly.

[andrew-wh]

Ever since beginning this program I have heard of the evils of Google. Well, let me re-phrase, about the potential evils of Google. Being uninformed (and, truth be told, I still somewhat am), I would espouse to my family and friends about the potential evils from high on my soapbox and...

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I agree that Google isn't necessarily "evil" (if anything is) and there is a difference between being malicious and evil and just being self-serving. Google does not make good search engines and information available to users out of the goodness of their heart (after all, that is what the library is for haha) but they do so because it makes them A LOT of money!!! Don't think for a second that if better searching for us did not equal more money for them that they would be so concerned with this. They are like any other corporation seeking to make money and whether or not that makes them evil is a matter of personal ethics and perspective.

[dragonfly22699]

[libraryjournal]

Here’s something to put a little bounce in your Friday morning!

[alicia9134]

Ok…can we just LOL @ this for a minute though? This llama is fabulous.

[missquerious]

The more I think about it the more terrifying the state on information privacy becomes, it’s not something that I know a lot about in the first place, and it’s not something that I think about all that often beyond who does and does not have access to my facebook profile. But the more I have to...

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Even though Google claims to be hesitant with sharing information with the government and law enforcement, I would bet that when push comes to shove, if the right people lean on them who can make their lives miserable (i.e. CIA, FBI) they will cave and hand over everything to avoid paying large fines or legal fee. I would be astounded if Google stood up for its users and defended their rights at the cost of their own time and money but crazier things have happened I guess.

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Mental Health Privacy Concerns with U.S. Border Patrol

Today I came across a disturbing article on the CBC news website about private Canadian mental health information being shared with the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Personal medical information about mental illness diagnoses and past suicide attempts can be searched for in a database and U.S. border agents can prevent entry to people with a history of mental illness because they “may pose a threat to the property, safety or welfare of themselves or others” according to the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. The article discusses a Canadian citizen Ellen Richardson was turned away at Toronto’s Pearson airport by U.S. customs agents because she was hospitalized in 2012 for clinical depression and had attempted suicide in 2001 but has since had psychiatric treatment. Sadly this is not the first time I have read about this and last fall there was a similar situation where a woman named Lois Kamenitz where customs agents at Pearson Airport denied her onto a flight to Los Angeles because of an attempted suicide in 2009.

             According to the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, the situation is “deeply concerning” and will be investigated into further. It was concluded that the Toronto Police Service automatically uploads all attempted suicides and suicide calls to CPIC (Canadian Police Information Centre) but the Privacy Commissioner found that it is not mandatory for police to upload such cases so does not understand why the TPS does it. Even if it was legally required, the information uploaded into CPIC should be protected and only accessible to Canadian police services and not to foreign police services such as the FBI. According to the federal Privacy Act and Ontario FIPPA Act, personal information obtained about citizens must be protected and only used for the purposes in which they were collected (so not to be shared without permission to other agencies, even within our own country). Apparently through a cooperation agreement between the RCMP and FBI, the CPIC database is made available to U.S. Border Patrol (something that should be changed or at least not upload mental health issues for them to be searchable in the first place).

             The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) fully disagrees with these practices because mental health information, like all health information, “should be protected to the greatest extent possible” (CAMH) the same as a medical file or notes from a psychiatrist or psychologist would be protected. CAMH says only in very few circumstances should suicide attempts and other mental health issues be uploaded to CPIC if the person is committing serious violence or harm to themselves or others or the incident occurred while the person was in police custody.

 The fact that our private health information (especially since mental health information is especially sensitive and potentially embarrassing) can be uploaded into a database and be used to prevent access and movement is disgraceful. Persons with mental illnesses, especially those who have sought treatment, are not criminals and should not be treated as such and discriminated against by law enforcement and border patrols. The worst part, as usual, is that this breach of our privacy and security is done to the Canadian population without the people being aware this breach is even occurring (all done secretly behind closed doors). That is until you are attempting to take a trip to the U.S. and are stopped at the border and treated as a criminal and put into a humiliating and dehumanizing disputation due to the fact that you suffer from an illness.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/canadians-mental-health-info-routinely-shared-with-fbi-u-s-customs-1.2609159

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canadians-with-mental-illnesses-denied-u-s-entry-1.1034903

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Makerspaces - The Democratization of Knowledge and Production

            This post is a little late but I attended the 2014 OLA Super Conference in Toronto this year and had the opportunity to visit the Pop-up Makerspace put on by MakerKids and attend a seminar called “Makerspaces: Retinkering School Libraries” put on by Bill Derry of The Westport Library in Westport, Connecticut and Andy Forest of MakerKids Toronto. The OLA Super Conference was the week before we had the lecture and presentation on makerspaces so it was very timely to the discussion. In class, the presentation about makerspaces was well done by a fellow student and discussed how they are places where people can come together to create stuff and share knowledge and because of this, library patrons and users of makerspaces are no longer just consumers of information but creators who are reclaiming knowledge for themselves.

             In Derry and Forest’s presentation, they also discussed the idea of users as creators rather than just consumers of knowledge, makerspaces as a communal knowledge hub (a ‘learning commons’; people teaching people), and the democratization of knowledge and production. This ties in with previous lectures about Taylorism and industrialization which discussed the deskilling process and how skilled artisans decreased in favour of unskilled assembly-line workers. With makerspaces, users can use tools and make things they would otherwise take for granted and have a ‘reskilling renaissance’ which has active participants involved in the community. Derry and Forest discuss how there was a shift from the “Industrial Age” to the “Information Age” but that we are now in transition into what they call an “Imagination Age” where people are not just acquiring knowledge (which is at our very fingertips) but re-engaging themselves and adding to the wealth of knowledge by creating something new or at least fostering an environment in which creativity is encouraged (i.e. schools, public libraries).

             They also discuss the changing economic needs of the new millennium due to over-saturation in the service sector market with highly education “professionals” and an increased need for skilled labourers and tradesmen (revert back to pre-industrialization of craftsmen and workbenches vs. assembly line mentality). Where we used to live in a society that had us gain ‘knowledge’ before ‘doing’ (i.e. formal university or college education) there is now a push towards gaining ‘knowledge’ through ‘doing’ first  through a process of trial and error (failure is seen as a necessity in ‘making’ according to Derry and Forest). They advocate for following the model of use --> tinker --> experiment --> create in which you can only create things by using the tools/items (not just reading about it) and by tinkering and experimenting and making mistakes along the way.

             While at the conference, I also purchased a book entitled The Maker Movement Manifesto by Mark Hatch, which followed this same line of thinking about ‘open source creativity’. In his book, Hatch outlines several criteria that are characteristic of the ‘maker movement’ which are to: make, share, give, learn, tools, play, participate, support, and change. Hatch claims that “Making is fundamental to what it means to be human” (Hatch, 2014, p. 11), which is something that has been robbed of us through Taylorism and industrialization and needs to be re-established in our society. The characteristics that Hatch describes are all embraced by the library community which advocates the creation and sharing of information so perhaps makerspaces (in any form) are the future and evolution of the library and how we acquire and share knowledge.

References

Derry, Bill and Andy Forest. “MakerSpaces: Retinkering School Libraries.” Topic presented at the 2014 OLA Super Conference, Toronto, Ontario, January 31, 2014.

Hatch, Mark. The Maker Movement Manifesto. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2014.

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Spy agencies must be accountable to Canadians for what they do with personal information, says interim privacy commissioner Chantal Bernier in a special report released today.

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Privacy commissioner calls for major surveillance reforms to protect Canadians

Sweeping changes are needed to the way intelligence agencies and government departments collect, use and disclose Canadians’ private information, including from social media, the federal privacy commissioner told Parliament on Tuesday.

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The Windsor Public Library will spend approximately $19,000 to install 18 cameras to help stop theft.

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Why Pineapple Panopticon?

You may be wondering why I chose the name “Pineapple Panopticon” for my Tumblr account. What the heck do pineapples have to do with privacy, surveillance or panopticons really?? Well it started when I was trying to select one of the background images for my Tumblr account. I saw the pineapple background. I like pineapples; they are delicious and cool looking. After much browsing and not thrilled with my other choices I decided to choose the pineapple background for fun and then randomly Googled “pineapple panopticon” to see if I could find something funny to tie this all together. Low and behold, I found nothing comical but an academic journal article titled “The Theory and Practice of Utopia in a Total Institution: The Pineapple Panopticon” by Stewart Clegg, Miguel Pina e Cunha, and Arménio Rego instead. It is about the panoptic regime of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia. OMG!! What are the odds??

  The Khmer Rouge were the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia and was led by Pol Pot and others between 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge transformed their utopian vision into practice, with the political movement known as Ângkar as its main instrument. Ângkar’s panoptic presence was visible in many ways including black-uniformed soldiers, extermination camps, a new social order, the extermination of Buddhist monks, and the closing of temples, schools and markets. It was said that Ângkar had ‘the eyes of the pineapple’ in that “it was reified and made transcendent, described as a supernatural, enlightened being, as ever vigilant, as the perfect model of a metaphorical panopticon” (Clegg, et al, 2012, p. 1748). The many eyes were constantly looking for infiltration by enemies and no one could escape its scrutiny. People lived in fear of being accused of anti-revolutionary behaviour and people spied on each other so that everyone was constantly under surveillance. The Ângkar was omnipresent and everyone was under its panoptic gaze in that people were constantly watching themselves and watching others. Clegg and the others argue that this dual sense of being watched while watching others creates the conditions for surrendering one’s identity since one is constantly being put under scrutiny and surveillance and must always be acting (p. 1744).

  This ties in with the Foucauldian notion of the panopticon that we have been discussing throughout this course, which of course be borrowed from Jeremy Bentham’s original concept of the panopticon. Foucault uses the original concept developed by Jeremy Bentham as a metaphor for modern disciplinary societies and their desire to observe and normalise. He argues that since prisoners (or persons outside of a penal institution) do not know when they are being watched, they are forced to be on good behaviour permanently to avoid punishment. Due to the paranoia the Ângkar caused, the people of Cambodia and of the communist party were living in fear and thus modified their behaviour as if they were being constantly monitored.

  It was a total fluke that I happened to stumble upon this article that is relevant to this class and I am glad I was able to use the pineapple theme and assign it meaning. Also think about surveillance and panopticism the next time you eat tropical fruit. The eyes of the pineapple are watching you!!!!

  Clegg, Stewart, Miguel Pina e Cunha and Arménio Rego (2012). “The Theory and Practice of Utopia in a Total Institution: The Pineapple Panopticon.” Organizational Studies 33(12), p. 1735-1757.