Dilemmas arising with the rapidly emerging digital surveillance society

Digitalisation has radically increased the intensity and scope of surveillance in society.

Large-scale collection, analysis and storage of data means that surveillance is increasingly subtly embedded in our lives.

Often we are not aware of when we are being monitored, or the extent of data collected about us, how it is used and may be used in the future. A variety of devices collect data, such as the police’s CCTV , body and vehicle-mounted cameras, and various sensors.

Enormous amounts of data are collected about citizens´ behaviors by digital platforms such as social media, smart phones, and GPS.

AI expands the possibilities for analyzes of collected data both historically and in real time and for predictive purposes (a current example is facial recognition).

In addition, there is a strong political will to expand the mandate for state and private actors to use surveillance with expectations of increased efficiency and security.

This raises important questions about how the potential of emerging technologies can be used responsibly to increase efficiency and security in society while protecting fundamental democratic values such as privacy and freedom of expression - this generates various dilemmas that will be presented and discussed during the conference.

The main purpose of the conference is primarily to bring together researchers (which includes PhD students and senior researchers) who present research that critically problematizes issues related to surveillance and privacy in our contemporary society.

An important purpose of the conference is to develop knowledge and to establish new possible international collaborations. In addition, a panel will also be organized with a mix of researchers and practitioners.

The conference focuses on the tensions and dilemmas that arise between expectations of digital surveillance technologies´ potential to increase security in society and how individuals´ democratic rights such as privacy should be protected.