Surveillance Around the World

Surveillance in the United States

● Institutionalized Surveillance
○ FBI
■ To protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States
● Protect civil rights, combat transnational/national criminal organizations and enterprises,
combat major white-collar crime, combat significant violent crime
○ CIA
■ Collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence to assist government officials in
making national security decisions. This does not lead to policy recommendations, only reporting
● Identify a concern, collect information (human intelligence, surveillance, etc.), analyze and
assess the threat, prepare written and oral briefings for government officials
○ NSA
■ Discover adversaries' secrets, protect U.S. secrets, and outmaneuver adversaries in cyberspace all
while protecting the privacy rights of the American people
● Specialize in cryptology (making and breaking codes)
● A member of both the Defense Department and intelligence community
Surveillance in the United States

● USA PATRIOT Act

○ We talked about this already :)
● Targeting Minorities
○ Throughout the civil rights era surveillance methods targeted minorities and activists
■ Black Panthers: somewhat controversial, but many feel the FBI targeted the
movement by paying informants for intelligence on leader’s homes/movements
before warrants could be filed, using extensive wiretapping without firm justification,
and used intimidation tactics such as following or photographing members in
situations not related to the Black Panthers
■ So, the United States still does not have a perfect surveillance system and it is prone
to the same targeting many other countries face
Surveillance in China
● China is one of the least internet-free societies, but surveillance has
recently taken form in other ways
● Internet
○ Nine state-run operators maintain China’s gateways to the global internet, giving authorities the ability to
cut off cross-border information requests, which is processed and overseen by the Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology (MIIT)
○ The systems have been turned off in response to protests and social movements (i.e. Tiananmen Square)
● Cameras
○ There are close to 200 million cameras across the country (1 camera per 7 citizens) and
about 97% of cities have mass surveillance systems
○ By 2020 a nation-wide surveillance network with facial recognition that can then be used
to create identity profiles is expected to be implemented
Surveillance in Iran
● Iran has been identified as one of the worst countries in the world in terms of
internet freedom, though conditions have improved in the last two years
○ Censorship decisions are made by the Committee to Determine Instances of Criminal
Content (CDICC) and violations are referred to the Committee for Promoting Virtue and
Prohibiting Vice
● Internet
○ Nearly all Western networking sites and search engines have been blocked, including sites
that are owned by Israeli citizens or are critical of CDICC
■ The Iranian government has created their own versions of social media apps, such as Facenama
(Facebook), Telegram (Messenger), and Aparat (YouTube)
■ Instagram was recently approved by the government, but is often shut down for periods of time to
avoid protests and social movements (i.e. Arab Spring)
○ Iranians can access VPNs, so it is possible for them to access banned sites
■ Punishments for doing so range from fines to public persecution and humiliation
World-Wide Surveillance
● Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization)
○ Politically neutral organization that facilitates police cooperation and intelligence sharing
across the globe
○ Focuses on crimes against humanity, terrorism, cybercrime, drug production and
trafficking, human trafficking, weapons smuggling, and organized and white-collar crime
● United Nations
○ WHO Global Surveillance and Monitoring System
■ Certain infectious diseases have been deemed “notable” and thus are subject to mandatory
reporting. Regional and national surveillance systems are in place to identify for other diseases
■ WHO is the leading international organization for responding to health crises, which can only be
identified with surveillance and reporting methods
○ Drone Program
■ Unarmed drones have been used in places such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo to
monitor violence and support peace-keeping missions