Bernd Carsten Stahl
De Montfort University, UK
Mary Prior
De Montfort University, UK
Sara Wilford
Warwick University, UK
Dervla Collins
Iota Localisation Services, Ireland
This chapter will start with a discussion of three different pieces of research concerning surveillance. The first study looks at the perception of surveillance by some of those people who supervise and implement it; namely, information systems or information technology professionals. The next study investigates students perception of surveillance in their university, while the last one is an in-depth study of two organisations with regard to surveillance. The combining factor of these three studies is that the subjects do not necessarily see surveillance as problematic . Given this surprising finding, this chapter will recount the arguments for and against surveillance as found in the literature. This will lead to a discussion of the reasons why individuals often do not seem to mind surveillance, despite good evidence that it may be psychologically, morally, socially , and even economically harmful . The chapter will end with a discussion of what these findings can mean for people interested in surveillance.