Digital Surveillance And Privacy Of Women

In Swati Punia, Shashank Mohan, Jhalak M. Kakkar, and Vrinda Bhandari (Eds.). Emerging Trends in Data Governance. New Delhi: Centre for Communication Governance., 2022

Since its conceptualisation, the construction of privacy has been deeply gendered, as women and gender and sexual minorities are often at the receiving end of forms of privacy that are subordinating, rather than equalising. In this essay, I argue that, as a result of pervasive datafication, we are now witnessing a generalisation of such problematic interpretations of privacy, to include and affect everybody. Although datafication is fundamentally reconfiguring our bodies and our lives, a comprehensive rethink of what it means to substantially protect privacy in this context remains lacking. As a consequence, the watered-down, inferior version of privacy that women and sexual and gender minorities historically have been faced with is now extended to all: we are effectively witnessing a global feminisation of privacy. This essay first examines in what ways dominant understandings of privacy have been gendered and how such gendering has been reflected in Indian jurisprudence in particular, through a fundamental curtailment of the decisional autonomy of women and gender and sexual minorities and of their ability to engage in self-determination. It then argues that, in the age of datafication, this predicament now presents itself to all of us, as a result of three trends in particular: the specific ways in which consent and anonymity are mobilised by surveillance capitalism (and government) as key tools to drive the datafication of our lives; the resulting reconfiguration of the public and the private; and the portrayal and treatment of data as by default disembodied and deterritorialised. It is these three trends that lie at the heart of the global feminisation of privacy.

IEEE Security & Privacy

Surveillance, privacy and security are of paramount concern to technology users. One of the implications of these new forms of technologized surveillance that has received little attention is their implications for women fleeing violent situations. This article seeks to place questions of surveillance technologies into a theoretical framework that foregrounds the challenges that new surveillance technologies pose to anti-violence movements. Specifically we address the impact of surveillance technologies in the practice of violence and some proposed solutions, and consider the ways that surveillance technologies are used disproportionately in the criminalization of marginalized groups. By placing violence against women at the centre of our analysis we aim to complicate concerns related to surveillance technologies.

2019

In the context of increasingly digitised urban governance, this paper investigates the use of digital technology in the advocacy for women's safety in the city. Framing safety within the Lefebvrian concept of right to the city, this paper offers a review of online tools that seek to address sexual harassment and violence against women in the public space. The paper is organised in three sections; the first is an analysis of the web-and/or smart-phone based digital safety applications/tools. The second is a discussion about their potential for consciousness-raising. The third section examines their use in feminist advocacy for affecting change in the decision-making processes shaping the city. Informed by the type of functions performed by these digital safety tools, the authors use a binary rubric to categorise their approach to women's safety as "empowering" or "paternalistic". Our analysis assumes that the process of engagement and participation of women in advocacy is empowering and that surveillance and securitisation constitute a paternalistic approach. Considering these digital safety tools through the lens of feminist consciousness-raising, we explore how digital technologies might transform women's perceptions of their right to the city. We draw upon global examples to ask: what lessons can be learned from their successes? Using Australian examples Free to Be and She's a crowd we illustrate how an empowering approach is being employed locally. We propose that if successful, these digital interventions can disrupt (1) traditional gender roles/stereotypes through consciousness-raising and engagement, and (2) traditional information-flows and processes of knowledge production.

International Journal of Communication (IJOC), 2018

Feminist Surveillance Studies is a welcomed contribution to the field of surveillance research. Founded in a critical feminist epistemology, the book encompasses eleven chapters covering a broad range of subjects and perspectives. Together, the various authors provide sound theoretical foundations to think of the values embedded in the design of surveillance infrastructures in general, by no means circumscribed to digital technologies. The authors in this volume are predominantly women and come from a range of disciplines, including Africana studies, communication and media studies, criminology, cultural studies, law, literature, medicine, political science, and sociology. Its multidisciplinary scope makes the book appealing for a large audience, from surveillance and gender scholars to public policy practitioners and citizens in general, whom might be interested in understanding the unfolding of surveillance practices through the perspectives of one of the genders that have been historically most affected by them. The chapters are theoretically and conceptually grounded, concise, and informed by empirical research, which provides, without exception, an enjoyable reading despite the apparent grimness of the topic.

2013

This edition of GISWatch explores women’s rights and gender through the lens of information and communications technologies (ICTs). It includes a series of expert thematic reports on issues such as access to infrastructure, participation, online disobedience, and sexuality online, as well as 46 country reports on topics like the rights of domestic workers, trafficking in women, participation in governance, child brides, and the right to abortion. GISWatch 2013 shows that gains in women’s rights made online are not always certain or stable. While access to the internet for women has increased their participation in the social, economic and governance spheres, there is there is another side to these opportunities: online harassment, cyberstalking, and violence against women online all of which are on the increase globally. This GISWatch is a call to action, to the increased participation of women in all forms of technological governance and development, and to a reaffirmation and strengthening of their rights online. GISWatch is published annually and is a joint initiative by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos).

Surveillance Society, 2012

Surveillance, privacy and security are of paramount concern to technology users. One of the implications of these new forms of technologized surveillance that has received little attention is their implications for women fleeing violent situations. This article seeks to place questions of surveillance technologies into a theoretical framework that foregrounds the challenges that new surveillance technologies pose to anti-violence movements. Specifically we address the impact of surveillance technologies in the practice of violence and some proposed solutions, and consider the ways that surveillance technologies are used disproportionately in the criminalization of marginalized groups. By placing violence against women at the centre of our analysis we aim to complicate concerns related to surveillance technologies. Consumers expressed shock following the discovery that they could be so easily tracked by a major U.S. company (Yahoo News 2011). Clearly, the attention that this story received in popular news media and technology-focused websites (Chen 2011; The Wall Street Journal 2011; Yahoo News 2011; Aamoth 2011) suggests that questions of surveillance, privacy and security are of paramount concern to technology users. And yet, some of the implications of these new forms of technologized surveillance that have received little attention are those for women fleeing violent relationships. The methods that Apple adopted to place their consumers under surveillance are identical to some of the new technological strategies that abusers use to stalk their intimate partners, including screen shots and the use of GPS technology to track

Journal of anthropological and archaeological sciences, 2021

Many social media platforms in these days are overflowed with messages and contents targeting the Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) scholar and activist Safoora Zargar who was arrested by the Delhi Police's special cell on April 10, 2020 for her alleged participation in the Delhi riots for her marital status and pregnancy. Trollers targetted her that she is unmarried 1. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) on one side being a powerful device to enhance gender equality and empower women, on the other side are becoming danger to women's physical and emotional integrity when used to perpetrate violence 2. Over the years, the social media platform has advanced as a device for political appointment, campaigning and activism. Almost on dailybasis , women across these platforms face a barrage of abuse for exercising their fundamental human right of Freedom of Speech and Expression 3 , as well as right to dignity. Girls and women around the world are subjected to violence on account of their gender. Violence towards women and girls (VAWG) knows no boundaries, cutting across borders, race, culture and income groups, deeply harming sufferers, persons around them, and society in general 5 .

Policy & Internet , 2019

Gender-based violence online is rampant, ranging from harassment of women who are public figures on social media to stalking intimate partners using purpose-built apps. This is not an issue that can be addressed by individual states alone, nor can it be addressed satisfactorily through legal means. The normalization of misogyny and abuse online both reflects and reinforces systemic inequalities. Addressing gender-based violence online will require the intervention of the technology companies that govern the commercial Internet to prevent and combat abuse across networks and services. We argue that international human rights instruments provide an opportunity to identify with more precision the responsibilities of telecommunications companies and digital media platforms to mitigate harm perpetrated through their networks, and ensure that the systems they create do not reproduce gendered inequality. Finally, we present initial recommendations for platforms to promote human rights and fulfill their responsibilities under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.