From: <djg2120@columbia.edu>
  To  : <CPC@emoglen.law.columbia.edu>
  Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 03:03:43 -0400

[CPC] Paper 2: Convergence and Self-Replication: the New Surveillance

Convergence and Self-Replication: the New Surveillance
Dan Grimm

       It’s easy to criticize the government for compiling and
misusing citizens’ personal data. Criticism comes easily in large
part because of very legitimate concerns about the expansion of the
national security state- as the state grows, the space for resisting
the accumulation of personal data is invariably constrained.
Nonetheless, the extraction of personal data by the state does not
always conjure images of the forceful search and seizure violations
that characterized traditional 4th. Amendment violations in what can
be deemed the spacial era of privacy intrusion. In the digital age,
the state’s intrusion into the private sphere has become
streamlined and concealed, such that current dangers to the
autonomy of identity may appear innocuous at first glance.

	How is this possible? The answer is that citizens are unwittingly
cooperating with the state and with the interests of organized
capital in the extraction and interpretation of personal data. The
desire for socialization has caused the proliferation of websites
like MySpace, Facebook and independent blogs. MySpace has been so
successful that AOL has announced plans to release its own “social
networking site"[1]. Facebook is similarly popular, causing private
investors to recently dump $25 million into the site[2].  Likewise,
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. following up last year’s acquisition of
MySpace by investing in SimplyHired, a job search site “with a
strong social networking component"[3].

	The reason these social networking sites are so enticing to
investors is because they represent self-replicating, highly
effective data collection devices for use in advertising and
commerce. The social networking craze is in a state of
proliferation, with new sites popping up rapidly as citizens
desperately try to plug themselves into the system. Privacy
concerns are often ephemeral to those seeking socialization in the
digital age. The state is aware of this and has been tapping into
the vast body of voluntarily submitted personal data to perform a
growing list of law enforcement functions, such as tracking
pedophiles[4] and stopping future Columbine massacres[5].  These
seemingly valid objectives mask the underlying erosion of the
private identity by wrapping intrusion in a cloak of legitimacy.

	A particularly troubling aspect of social networking sites in
particular is that their growth is followed by vertical and
horizontal convergence. Vertical convergence is the alignment of a
governmental interest with the information contained in the deep
well of personal data that is being accumulated by social
networking sites. Fears about government data extraction are
typically framed within the context of the national security state.
However, the growing body of personal data in cyberspace coupled
with lower technical barriers to online activity are already
heralding an expansion of state uses of data. Social networking
sites have been targeted for a wide array of state objectives,
including current fears about cyberstalking and pedophilia. This
trend will continue as the state invents new justifications for
entwining itself with personal data reservoirs.

	Horizontal convergence represents the consolidation of organized
capital in the data sphere. Market players are in competition with
each other, but in the end the big companies usually win. When data
from numerous websites is acquired by a conglomerate or a Microsoft
it becomes integrated in a way that poses at least two problems.
First, a more complete profile of individuals can be assembled-
someone’s MySpace profile can be linked to their Amazon.com
wishlist which can be interpreted in light of information siphoned
from their online shopping habits. The convergence of data from an
expanding array of sources improves the thoroughness of individual
profiles.

	Second, the burden on the state in accessing the digital profile of
an individual is lessened- it is much easier to subpoena one
compliant corporation possessing an extensive data profile than to
fight multiple legal battles in an attempt to garner scraps of
information from each. This unification has already begun.
SimplyHired, which has already attracted the interest of Rupert
Murdoch, will be cross-linked with MySpace such that posts to
SimplyHired will appear on MySpace as well[6].  This is the most
recent example of data sets connecting with each other across the
spectrum. The inevitable interaction of additional nodes will speed
data interpretation, cumulating in an eventual data reservoir
containing increasingly thorough personal profiles.

	Ironically, the most pressing issue exists at the micro-level. The
average Internet user is either unaware, or worse, simply does not
care that his or her personal data is being accumulated and used to
produce identity profiles. Sites like MySpace are so successful
because data accumulation is inherently self-replicating. MySpace
works in a viral capacity, in which the users perform marketing and
distribution for the corporation. A user signs up for a site and
then “invites” friends to join. They do, and soon after they invite
their friends- and so on. This process of voluntary, viral marketing
of social networking sites reveals the  dangerous nature of current
means of data accumulation, which is that the targets have been
commissioned to unwittingly aid in the degradation of their
privacy.

	The second realm of self-replication is largely a technical
response to perceived problems sparked by social networking
utilities. Current fears about pedophilia and cheating spouses on
MySpace has spawned a new site, aptly called MyspaceWatch[7]. 
MyspaceWatch allows the user “to monitor login activity, track
profile changes, and keep a running history of up to 5 myspace.com
profiles”[8].  The site boasts, “We keep track [of] and monitor
activity so you don't have to”[9].  This hands-off, automated
process offers an additional layer in the surveillance system. The
voluntary submission of personal information can now be followed by
mechanized monitoring of profile changes as the system updates
itself through a process as close to real-time surveillance as
anything previously seen on the Internet. Worse, the site exploits
users’ fears to induce them to spy on each other, essentially
delegating the surveillance work to the subjects of control. The
irony is that this multi-tiered, increasingly efficient
surveillance system has been built through the unwitting consent of
Internet users. Until this consent is radically withdrawn the system
will continue to self-replicate while privacy shrivels.

[1]  “AOL’s MySpace Killer?,” Internetnews.com, April 20, 2006.
Available at: http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3600691

[2]  “Social Networking’s Gold Rush,” Business Week, April 19, 2006.
Available at:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2006/tc20060419 514268.htm?chan=technology technology+index+page more+of+today's+top+stories

[3]  Id.

[4] “MySpace Faces a Perp Problem,” Wired News, April 18, 2006.
Available at:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70675-0.html?tw=wn culture 1

[5]  “Police: MySpace Foils School Shooting,” CNN.com, April 20,
2006. Available at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/20/plot.foiled.ap/index.html?section=cnn latest

[6] “MySpace to Show SimplyHired Listings,” Webpronews.com, April 4,
2006. Available at:
http://www.webpronews.com/financial/news/wpn-64-20060419MySpaceToShowSimplyHiredListings.html

[7] Available at http://myspacewatch.com/account/login

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

Word count: 998



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