Predictive policing: How governments predict your behaviour (02:14)

Predictive policing: How governments predict your behaviour

[wcm_restrict plans=”admin”]

Hi there! Welcome to lesson three topic five: predictive policing: how governments predict your behavior. The new social control landscape we’ve been discussing in the previous topic does not only make it possible to analyze current behavior, but also to predict behavior in the future. One way governments are using this is by making use of predictive policing. The idea is that by collecting and analyzing large amounts of data, you are possibly able to see patterns in human behavior that could lead to crimes.

Then you could take action before the crime is being committed. For this to work however, you need large amounts of data. And for large amounts of data to be collected, you need to spy on peoples personal life and privacy can no longer exist. So for example: if the road camera’s know which route you’re taking to your work everyday, then they can identify if you’re taking a different once tomorrow. If you make a pitstop at an empty parking lot, this could suggest that you are a drugs criminal. And if shopping area’s are full of camera’s, you can spot potential pocket pickers by facial recognition and behavioral analysis.

If you look at this from a wider perspective you can see a trend in the mainstream narrative: mass-surveillance is necessary because of criminals and terrorists. Everyone that cares about privacy is a potential criminal or terrorist and therefore if you are a good citizen, you should give a away all your privacy.

There is already a country that created a society like this: China. In the next topic we’ll take a closer look at the society that has been created in China. What happens if you rate people based on their behavior? And what if those rates have big societal consequences for individuals? See you in the next one.

[/wcm_restrict]