As mentioned in the reading, surveillance has “a string of related associations—monitoring, tracking, observing, examining, regulating, controlling, gathering data, and invading privacy.” (186) Ultimately, it means to watch over something. More recently, a new era of surveillance equipment has been introduced through technological advancements. Security cameras, drones, and hidden microphones all aid in this process. Moreover, an array of social media platforms have now become surveillance-related as well. These apps and devices act as major data-trackers. Data can be collected and watched to detect any illegal activities but can also be tracked to simply aid companies in selling their products. For example, companies like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok all take part in the act of data-tracking. Personal data can be taken and processed by state security. Secondly, the reading also suggests that the genre of reality television can be viewed through a lens of “surveillance”. The people featured on the show continuously broadcast their lives for millions to watch and are followed by cameras for a majority of their day. In a way they lose all their sense of privacy and the world now has the opportunity to freely comment on their everyday lives.
