University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Fall 2009 Suspect Until Proven Guilty, a Problematization of State Dossier Systems via Two Case Studies: The United States and China Kenneth N. Farrall University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian Studies Commons, Communication Technology and New Media Commons, International and Intercultural Communication Commons, and the Social Influence and oliticalP Communication Commons Recommended Citation Farrall, Kenneth N., "Suspect Until Proven Guilty, a Problematization of State Dossier Systems via Two Case Studies: The United States and China" (2009). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 51. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/51 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/51 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Suspect Until Proven Guilty, a Problematization of State Dossier Systems via Two Case Studies: The United States and China Abstract This dissertation problematizes the "state dossier system" (SDS): the production and accumulation of personal information on citizen subjects exceeding the reasonable bounds of risk management. SDS - comprising interconnecting subsystems of records and identification - damage individual autonomy and self-determination, impacting not only human rights, but also the viability of the social system. The research, a hybrid of case-study and cross-national comparison, was guided in part by a theoretical model of four primary SDS driving forces: technology, political economy, law and public sentiment. Data sources included government documents, academic texts, investigative journalism, NGO reports and industry white papers. The primary analytical instrument was the juxtaposition of two individual cases: the U.S. and China. Research found that constraints on the extent of the U.S. SDS today may not be significantly different from China's, a system undergoing significant change amidst growing public interest in privacy and anonymity. Much activity within the U.S., such as the practice of suspicious activity reporting, is taking place outside the domain of federal privacy laws, while ID systems appear to advance and expand despite clear public opposition. Momentum for increasingly comprehensive SDS appears to be growing, in part because the harms may not be immediately evident to the data subjects. The future of SDS globally will depend on an informed and active public; law and policy will need to adjust to better regulate the production and storage of personal information. To that end, the dissertation offers a general model and linguistic toolkit for the further analysis of SDS. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Communication First Advisor Michael X. Delli Carpini Second Advisor Oscar Gandy Third Advisor Klaus Krippendorff Keywords surveillance, privacy, law, technology, political economy, dossier Subject Categories Asian Studies | Communication Technology and New Media | International and Intercultural Communication | Social Influence and Political Communication This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/51 ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my wife, Dong, whose support and patience gave me the strength, and our three children Myles, Eric and Kathryn, who gave me the inspiration to see this project through to its completion. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you, Oscar Gandy, for sparking my interest in privacy and surveillance and continuing to support my work even after your (much too early) retirement. Your support kept me moving forward, especially during the difficult times. I have been truly honored to have you as a friend and mentor. Thank you, Klaus Krippendorff, for introducing me to the power of language and the world of cybernetics, and for opening my mind to ways of thinking that will serve me for the rest of my life. Thank you, Joseph Turow, for instilling in me a much deeper appreciation for the importance of substance over theory. Thank you, Michael Delli Carpini, for your friendship, your guidance, and your inestimable capacity to turn problems into solutions. A special thank you to Monroe Price, for recharging my interest in international communication, and the material support that made it possible for me to pursue that interest. Thank you, to my friends and colleagues at the Annenberg School, some of the finest people I have ever known. Thank you to Josh Lauer, Jennifer Horner, Deb Lubken, Bill Herman, Zhan Li, Chris Finlay, and Lokman Tsui for their advice and friendship over the years. Thank you to Annenberg's wonderful support staff, especially Bev Henry, Deb Porter, Sharon Black , Rich Cardona, Lizz Cooper, and Joanne Murray. Finally, to my parents, George and Judy Farrall, to whom I will forever be indebted, this would never have been possible without you. iv ABSTRACT SUSPECT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY A PROBLEMATIZATION OF STATE DOSSIER SYSTEMS VIA TWO CASE STUDIES: THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA Kenneth N. Farrall Michael X. Delli Carpini Dissertation Supervisor This dissertation problematizes the “state dossier system” (SDS): the production and accumulation of personal information on citizen subjects exceeding the reasonable bounds of risk management. SDS — comprising interconnecting subsystems of records and identification — damage individual autonomy and self-determination, impacting not only human rights, but also the viability of the social system. The research, a hybrid of case-study and cross-national comparison, was guided in part by a theoretical model of four primary SDS driving forces: technology, political economy, law and public sentiment. Data sources included government documents, academic texts, investigative journalism, NGO reports and industry white papers. The primary analytical instrument was the juxtaposition of two individual cases: the U.S. and China. Research found that constraints on the extent of the U.S. SDS today may not be significantly different from China’s, a system undergoing significant change amidst growing public interest in privacy and anonymity. Much activity within the U.S., such as the practice of suspicious activity reporting, is taking place outside the domain of federal privacy laws, while ID systems appear to advance and expand despite clear public opposition. Momentum for increasingly comprehensive SDS appears to be growing, in part because the harms may not be immediately evident to the data v subjects. The future of SDS globally will depend on an informed and active public; law and policy will need to adjust to better regulate the production and storage of personal information. To that end, the dissertation offers a general model and linguistic toolkit for the further analysis of SDS. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS viii CHAPTER 1: Surveillance as a Social Problem 1 CHAPTER 2: Problematizing the State Dossier System 26 CHAPTER 3: U.S. Case, historical context 87 CHAPTER 4: U.S. Case 122 CHAPTER 5: Privacy across Cultures 202 CHAPTER 6: China Case 231 CHAPTER 7: Synthesis 286 APPENDIX A: Searching for the Mother of All Databases (research note) 326 APPENDIX B: Document Source Breakdown 334 REFERENCES: 336 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Case Nodes and Data Sources…………………………………………….…85 Table 2. Claims and Data Sources……………………………………………………312 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Document Retrieval Cycle 77 Figure 2. SIP Snowball, U.S. Case 79 Figure 3. Data Triangulation 82 Figure 4. SAR Information Flow Diagram 176 Figure 5. Linguistic Juxtaposition 202 Figure 6. Privacy 204 Figure 7. Public-Private 215 Figure 8. Anonymity 221 Figure 9. Data Shadows Through Time 245 Figure 10. Information Creation and Available Storage 290 Figure 11. Linguistic Toolkit 299 Figure 12. SDS General Model 300 Figure 13. Production: Site and Logic 301 Figure 14. The Targeted Person 310 Figure 15. Multidimensional Comparison of U.S. and China Surveillance 315 Figure 16. SIP Snowball Detail, U.S. Case 327 1 CHAPTER 1: SURVEILLANCE AS A SOCIAL PROBLEM This dissertation “problematizes” a particular domain of surveillance practice I call the “state dossier system.” This phrase is not intended to be normatively neutral, but to diagnose a social problem. At appropriate times neutral terms such as “information system,” database, and record will be used, but the goal of this work is to illuminate and contribute to the further analysis and regulation of what may be the single most important threat of states to the public interest this century: the unconstrained production and accumulation of personal information on state subjects that exceeds the reasonable bounds of the state’s mandate to manage risk. The concept of problematization, notes Foucault (1985) is “an ‘answer’ to a concrete situation which is real” (p. 115).1 Key to the problematization is the language that is used and developed — specific terms and concepts which help illuminate the relevant elements of the problem. The problematization of madness, for example, was built upon words like “mania” and “melancholia.” A problematization is not a theory per se. It is not intended to create a definitive model with predictive power, but to highlight key aspects of a real world problem, that, once properly identified, may be amenable to management and regulation. As the scope and depth of a state dossier system grows,