Digital surveillance and transformation of privacy: "The Circle" example

From past to present, Surveillance, is a systematic follow-up process that provides to have information about the data flows of the surveilled in order to keep people and communities under control. With the increase in digitalization and network technologies, surveillance has become a bilateral action in which the person being watched also actively participates as a observative. Digital surveillance is a monitoring method where individuals' data is accessed for global and regional security and in which individuals, as perpetrators, can spy on each other via network. This study addresses the changing meaning of surveillance with digitalization historically, also it examines meaning of the privacy concept sociologically examines the semantic change of this concept depending on digital surveillance. The first part of the study presents the thoughts of Marx and Weber on surveillance and the explanation of the concept of surveillance through Bentham's panopticon architecture model. Also Michel Foucault's thoughts on surveillance are also studied in depth. The second part of the study included the digital surveillance models and the views of thinkers such as Castells, Deleuze, Lyon and Bauman. In addition, the place of the privacy concept in history is evaluated in the context of public-private space, security and risk. The internal and external dimensions of digital surveillance are explained through security strategies and surveillance on the internet globally, and social media and virtual identities individually. Apart from limiting personel privacy with the increase in digital surveillance technologies for security purposes, it is noteworthy that individuals openly display their private areas through social networks. In this regard, in the analysis part of the study, it is mainly analyzed that the privacy of individuals, which they sacrifice for technology with their own consent. The study was designed as a qualitative research to understand the essence of the relationship between digital surveillance and privacy. Within the scope of content analysis, the book and movie called The Circle examined, and the presentation of individuals' privacy through social networks clearly exemplified. Also the digital transformation of privacy was revealed through the characters, technological applications and aphorisms in the story. As a result of the analysis, it is observed that the social media and internet technologies in daily life causes changes in the meaning of privacy and the publicity movement increases the desire to know everything. This situation, which triggers the lynch culture and the social alienation, also opens the door for individuals to turn their lives into a demonstration object of their own accord. In the context of the results, it is of great importance to create social awareness about social media and internet technologies in order to eliminate the negative effects of digital surveillance on privacy.