How Will Surveillance and Privacy Technologies Impact on the Psychological Notions of Identity?

Abstract

Surveillance technologies gather, process, record, search and distribute information about individuals and their activities, sometimes partially at the instigation of the individual concerned. Privacy technologies restore some level of control over this data to the individual, reducing the ability of third parties to monitor their characteristics and activities without their explicit consent.

There are two key trends in the development of surveillance and privacy technologies over the next decade: 1. Surveillance will increasingly be deployed for pre-emptive purposes by governments and companies. This is driven by an increase in computing capacity, miniaturisation of devices and improvements in performance, together with increased public use of digital media. 2. Without a stronger impetus from regulators, the limited economic viability of privacy- protective technologies to date and reliance on ineffective privacy solutions means that privacy protection is lagging behind the development of surveillance technologies.

Taken together, these developments in surveillance and privacy technologies are likely to have a number of effects on identity over the next ten years, related to interpersonal trust, social mobility and conformity/obedience, and political pluralism.

JEL Classification: K42, O33