The Video Camera, Voyeurism and State Surveillance in the IoT Era

Citizens tend to be accepting of the harmful effects of video surveillance by the government in lieu of national security. In this article, I reviewed a list of literature that discusses about how the video camera evolved from being a tool that humans use to satisfy voyeuristic tendencies, to an instrument used to conduct state surveillance. I started by defining concepts related to voyeurism and surveillance. Then I looked into how these concepts evolved in traditional and digital media. Afterwards, I looked at how governments see the video camera as a powerful apparatus for citizen surveillance. This power becomes much more concerning with recent advances in technologies, particularly in the Internet of Things (IoT). I concluded by stating the need to set parameters, policies and regulations in using IoT technologies for citizen surveillance, such as facial detection and recognition, to protect citizens privacy and security.(VLID)267565