Re: <nettime> Google Buzz and the Surveilance Economy

[Christian Fuchs <christian.fuchs@sbg.ac.at>]

Dear Greg,

I agree with you that it is important to take users' opinions and 
thereby hegemony into account, which can only be done by the way of 
conducting empirical research.

But I think it is also not that easy to assume that users accept that 
offer of Internet corporations as predominantly positive, because the 
discussions about Google Buzz, Google in general, Facebook privacy 
policies, etc show that a certain share of users tends to be rather 
critical towards Internet surveillance. So user attitudes most probably 
are antagonistic in this respect. Much more empirical research is needed 
here.

Best, Christian

Greg Elmer schrieb:

> But it's so easy, no? Buzz is a tyranny of convenience, I think Colin
> Bennett coined that phrase. Surveillance regimes are powerful because they
> offer something to users. That "pay off" must play a greater role in
> surveillance studies. /Greg Elmer

-- 
- - -
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Christian Fuchs
Associate Professor
Unified Theory of Information Research Group
ICT&S Center
University of Salzburg
Sigmund Haffner Gasse 18
5020 Salzburg
Austria
christian.fuchs@sbg.ac.at
Phone +43 662 8044 4823
Personal Website: http://fuchs.uti.at
Research Group: http;//www.uti.at
Editor of
tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-Operation | Open Access Journal 
for a Global Sustainable Information Society
http://www.triple-c.at
Fuchs, Christian. 2008. Internet and Society: Social Theory in the 
Information Age. New York: Routledge.
http://fuchs.uti.at/?page_id=40


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