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Surveillance is a method of constant observation that has been used throughout history. While surveillance has become popularized through recent advances in technology, surveillance activities have occurred throughout history.
As Keith Laidler proposes in his book Surveillance Unlimited: How We’ve Become the Most Watched People on Earth, “spying and surveillance are at least as old as civilization itself. The rise of city states and empires […] meant that each needed to know not only the disposition and morale of their enemy, but also the loyalty and general sentiment of their own population.”[1]
In history, surveillance is often referred to as spying or espionage. Most often, surveillance historically occurred as a means to gather and collect information, supervise the actions of other people (usually enemies), and to use this information to increase ones understanding of the party being spied upon. Since ancient times, surveillance occurred most often through the use of an individual spy, or a small group of spies. As technology such as spyglasses, telescopes and radios developed, surveillance technologies continually effected the way in which surveillance occurred. Modern surveillance technologies such CCTV, RFID and GPS help to highlight the extent to which surveillance practices have evolved throughout history.
^Laidler, Keith Surveillance Unlimited: How We’ve Become the Most Watched People on Earth Cambridge ; Crows Nest [Australia] : Icon Books Ltd., 2008. page 17
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