David Lyon- Big Data Vulnerabilities: Social Sorting on Steroids?
To what extent is the concept of social sorting useful for understanding surveillance in the era of big data? The emerging modes of surveillance are increasingly participatory or collaborative, dependent on the use of algorithms for data analysis, and rely on multiple data sources. Yet the outcomes are still demonstrably discriminatory, often in negative ways, with intersectional consequences that may perpetuate durable differences. This applies in both corporate and government contexts, that themselves more frequently interact with each other through conduits of data-sharing. At the same time, at a broadly cultural level, surveillance imaginaries and practices are also more volatile, fluid and mutable, although informed through awareness of and involvement in data production and dissemination. Thus while surveillance may still facilitate social sorting, now with the kinds of added strength and dexterity that characterize even sober understandings of big data, its collaborative aspects help create new openings for negotiation. Indeed, the very dividing between embodied experience and data life, for instance through Google’s indifference to the former, offers avenues for hope.
Biography
David Lyon is Director, Surveillance Studies Centre, Queen’s Research Chair in Surveillance Studies, Professor of Sociology and Professor of Law at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Equally, he is a husband, father and grandfather. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland and raised mainly in Bristol, England, he completed his Social Science and History education in Bradford, Yorkshire (BSc Soc Sci, PhD) and was based in the area for 15 years, at Bradford and Ilkley College, Bradford University, Leeds University and, for a year each at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada and Calvin College, USA. He has been at Queen’s University since 1990. His early work was a critique of secularization theories from which he shifted to an interest in the social aspects of new technologies and from there to surveillance.
He has directed a number of large-scale research projects since 1996, totalling almost $8 million, mainly from SSHRC. Current international and multidisciplinary team project: Big Data Surveillance, 2015-2020. He has authored or edited 29 books and published many articles. The books have been translated into 18 languages (Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish) and articles more. Surveillance after Snowden (2015) is the latest book. Current book-writing projects include The Culture of Surveillance. Lyon is on the international editorial boards of a number of journals, was a founding editor of Surveillance & Society and Associate Editor of The Information Society. He has held short or long visiting positions at the Universities of Auckland, Birzeit, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Leeds, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Tokyo, the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.
Recognition: 2008-2010: Killam Research Fellowship from the Canada Council. 2007: Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association, Communication and Information Technology Section. 2008: elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. 2012: Outstanding Contribution Award from the Canadian Sociological Association. 2013: elected to the Academy of Social Sciences, UK. 2015: Insight Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. 2016: Honorary doctorate from the Università della Svizzera Italiana.
David is married to Sue, a studio potter. They have four adult children and eleven grandchildren. David also paints in watercolour, and rides long-distance tandem bicycle with Sue.
Selected books: Surveillance: Transparent Lives: Surveillance in Canada / Vivre à nu: la surveillance au Canada (ed. Lyon et al) 2014. Liquid Surveillance, co-authored with Zygmunt Bauman, 2013. Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as Surveillance, 2009. Surveillance Studies: An Overview, 2007. Surveillance Society, 2001; The Electronic Eye, 1995. Co-edited collections include the Handbook of Surveillance Studies with Kirstie Ball and Kevin Haggerty, 2012; Eyes Everywhere: The Global Growth of Camera Surveillance with Aaron Doyle and Randy Lippert, 2011; Surveillance, Privacy and the Globalization of Personal Information with Elia Zureik and others, 2010; Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory, Power with Elia Zureik and Yasmeen-Abu-Laban 2010; and Playing the Identity Card with Colin Bennett, 2008. Religion: The Steeple’s Shadow, 1985; Jesus in Disneyland, 2000.