Data Surveillance in the Information Society

With the rise of the Information Age, concerns about privacy and the birth of a ‘surveillance society’ arose. This phenomenon can notably be witnessed in the public sectors in OECD countries. Thanks to the development of new processes and technologies based on the use of personal data, bureaucratic organisations (in their weberian definition) elaborate a new form of surveillance called data surveillance. These techniques inspired by panoptics constitute a new way of producing social control. The disciplinary power described by Foucault before the Information Society has been partly replaced by the power of information called informational power. Accordingly concerns about the preservation of privacy rise among citizens. Nonetheless the main consequence of the informational power is the social control it produces on citizens. But individuals find ways of bypassing or contesting the informational power. They generate counter powers through the political and public opinion channels in order to keep the system ‘balanced’. This theoretical study should be qualified. First the bureaucratic organisations do not promote these new tools only to produce social control. In fact they are part of a general process of rationalisation and economisation of public services. Second the study provides a rather ‘conflicting’ view which does not fit to all the contexts. Finally the concept of ‘surveillance society’ is relevant to illustrate the dominant place of information but is not acceptable as a new model of society. Keywords: Surveillance, Information Society, Social Control, Privac