Corporate Surveillance

Workplaces often used data gathered about their employees in order check up on employees or potential new hires. This is type of surveillance has also been referred to as workplace surveillance.

Companies have emerged that conduct background checks on (potential) employees (Gilliom & Monahan, 2013, p. 104).

According to Lyon (2007), surveillance in the workplace "often follow Foucault's focus on the micro-techniques of discipline that target and treat the body as something to be observed and tested" (p.48).

According to Staples, "Sixty-seven percent of major U.S. employers engage in some form of electronic monitoring of workers" (p. 1).

References:

Gilliom, J. & Monahan, T. (2013). SuperVision: An Introduction to the Surveillance Society. Chicago: U of Chicago.

Ericson, R. V., & Haggerty, K.D. (1997). The Risk Society. In R.V. Ericson & K.D. Haggerty (Eds.) Policing the risk society (pp. 81-130). U of Toronto: Toronto. Haggerty, K.D., & Ericson, R. (2000). The Surveillant Assemblage. Lyon, D. Surveillance Studies: An Overview. (2007). Malden: Polity Press.

Staples, W. G. (2000). Everyday surveillance: Vigilance and visibility in postmodern life. 2^nd ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

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