Adoption of Surveillance Technologies: Data Openness, Privacy, and Cultural Tightness

The diffusion and adoption of surveillance technologies have increased significantly in the past few decades. In addition to reductions in the cost of sensors, data storage, and algorithms, social norms have undoubtedly affected patterns of adoption. In addition to extending human abilities to monitor and regulate behavior, shared social norms related to privacy, security, and conformity will affect the nature and extent of adoption. In this study, archival data is used to examine the associations between data openness practices, privacy norms, and conformity bias, i.e., cultural “tightness.” Results suggested that social groups that emphasized conformity and had weaker open data policies, were most likely to adopt a variety of surveillance technologies.

I. Introduction

The ubiquity and capabilities of surveillance technologies has been a focus of growing concern [1]–[4]. The overall goal of surveillance is the monitoring and regulation of members of a group. Consequently, surveillance processes represent an extension of social-cognitive processes related to the creation and maintenance of group norms [5]. Recent consequential events also provided an illustration of the potential benefits of surveillance. For instance, contact tracing applications were used to mitigate the risks of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 [6], while the use of Parler location data provided insight into the extent of the breach of the U.S. Capitol [7].