How does surveillance work?

Our alert systems for identifying safety and security threats have evolved over time because of evolution. As the threat from wild animals diminished, the perceived threat from other humans increased because of wars, attacks and dangerous behavior in general. To defend our territories and our livelihoods, humans began to gather intelligence on our enemies, in the hope that being forewarned would give us an advantage.

This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 8th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London, and it explores our use of technologies that have allowed us to keep a closer watch, and the ingenious methods that have been used to counter them. Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology, a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.

This lecture chapters are the following:

• 00:00 Opening and literary foundations
• 04:27 Surveillance in ancient Rome
• 10:49 Informers and revolution
• 11:45 Deterrence and the panopticon
• 16:16 Surveillance in modern UK law
• 20:20 Practical surveillance scenario
• 23:21 Data and digital surveillance
• 27:28 Vigilantism and tech
• 30:13 Mass surveillance and consent
• 32:30 Platforms and self-censorship
• 34:36 Health and environmental surveillance
• 37:06 Privacy backlash
• 38:25 Historical privacy fights
• 42:31 Accountability and watching the watchers
• 46:01 Paradoxes and final thoughts

We are living in a world were surveillance can become a habit, having video camera all over the place and watching people on internet and over internet, and the Artificial Intelligence can help humans identifying who is doing what, and Artificial Intelligence can do most of the job in the following years. So watch out and behave, you never know who's or what's watching.