Carlson Matt and John Edward Campbell

PANOPTICON.COM: ONLINE SURVEILLANCE AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF PRIVACY

Abstract

We explore how marketing imperative are shaping the employment of information technologies for the surveillance of individuals online. Informed by political economy thought, we analyze the discourse surrounding online marketing models of the World Wide Web in an effort to understand how surveillance techniques are employed for the reduction of uncertainty in cyberspace. We attempt to chart and interrogate emerging online marketing practices in order to discern the broader social implications of corporate data gathering. To this end, we revisit Foucaultıs metaphorical Panopticon with the intent of determining the conceptual usefulness of panoptic surveillance in apprehending the economically driven practices of data gathering and assessment. Importantly, we confront a particularly troublesome aspect of panoptic surveillance ­ the participation of subjects in their own monitoring (i.e. self-surveillance). We hold that self-surveillance exists in cyberspace in that individuals cooperate in the online gathering of data about themselves as economic subjects. One possible explanation for this self-surveillance is an epistemological shift we identify as the commodification of privacy. We will suggest that the participation in surveillance is partially achieved through the reconceptualization of privacy in the consumerıs mind from a right or civil liberty to a commodity that can be exchanged for perceived benefits. Finally, we apply these theoretical insights to two different marketing models of the World Wide Web: the existing Internet ad server model (represented by online marketing films such as DoubleClick and Bluestreak) and the emerging infomediary model (represented by firms such as Lumeria).