Digital Surveillance in Electronic Form

In our modern society loads of transactions are done in the electronic form. During the earlier days of the 19th century these transactions were done in the paper form. Thus there used to be huge amount of paper records. But since newer days these transactions have been electrified the paper records have been substituted by the electronic records. Instead of the paper records now the details of the transactions are stored in a digitized form in the computers and other electronic or digital devices. For example whenever we use a credit/debit card or a bank machine or make a call from our cell phone or otherwise a complete record of the transaction and is generated. These data are received from various places, compiled and analysed to identify the behaviour of the individuals or society as a whole.

This has brought a revolution in the surveillance of these records. The records which were required to be searched manually through the huge pile of files containing thousands of paper can now be done easily sitting in front of a computer and running a program. Moreover the records can be accessed from anywhere around the globe. The officer is required to put in certain passwords and he gets access to all the data from a distance. Also with files such as Spywares a term give by Steve Gibson, computer surveillance can be carried out without the will of the user of the computer. Now with the advent of high speed internet computers have become more frequent prey of Spywares.

Although digital surveillance is of a great help in making a study of the behaviour of the society or tracking any criminal activity like use of forged credit cards etc but this recording of transactions takes away the anonymity of the people using such services. Thus in order to avoid such recording of transactions cash is used for completing the transaction.