Secret surveillance is one of the core activities of the intelligence services. Covert collection of information about individuals is often necessary for the effective performance of their tasks. On ...the other hand, the development of information technologies enables mass and virtually unlimited covert surveillance, thereby compromising democratic values such as privacy or transparency. Thus, balancing security and individual rights requires the creation of appropriate legal and political checks on surveillance. The responsibility for delineating the permissible boundaries of surveillance authorities rests primarily upon parliaments. However, Polish surveillance law tends to successively expand surveillance powers at the expense of the constitutional balance, as confirmed by multiple Constitutional Court rulings. One of the theories put forward to explain this fact is the regulatory capture theory, according to which legislators, through close cooperation with intelligence agency personnel, adopt the latter's perspective and values, becoming co-opted to further their interests. This is exacerbated because the intelligence personnel has greater expertise on surveillance issues, and, as noted by J. Widacki, an exceptional capability to charm discussants, strong motives for exercising it, and substantial experience with significant successes in this area. This article seeks to 'un-charm' this area. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, and by reference to objective, measurable indicators, we seek to assess the extent of regulatory capture on the Polish legislative process in the area of secret surveillance, and thereby contribute to explaining the weakness of the legal and political checks on intelligence services in Poland.
This article examines the intersection of two structural developments: the growth of surveillance and the rise of "big data." Drawing on observations and interviews conducted within the Los Angeles ...Police Department, I offer an empirical account of how the adoption of big data analytics does—and does not—transform police surveillance practices. I argue that the adoption of big data analytics facilitates amplifications of prior surveillance practices and fundamental transformations in surveillance activities. First, discretionary assessments of risk are supplemented and quantified using risk scores. Second, data are used for predictive, rather than reactive or explanatory, purposes. Third, the proliferation of automatic alert systems makes it possible to systematically surveil an unprecedentedly large number of people. Fourth, the threshold for inclusion in law enforcement databases is lower, now including individuals who have not had direct police contact. Fifth, previously separate data systems are merged, facilitating the spread of surveillance into a wide range of institutions. Based on these findings, I develop a theoretical model of big data surveillance that can be applied to institutional domains beyond the criminal justice system. Finally, I highlight the social consequences of big data surveillance for law and social inequality.
The reporting practice of domestic intelligence services is one of the sparse researched areas of democracy protection in European constitutional states. This article aims to lay a foundation for ...more detailed investigations by placing the already better explored German observation and reporting activities in the European context. To this end, it pools the results of investigations, a considerable part of them legal, evaluates the published reports and spreads the findings of a series of interviews with representatives of the security authorities and academic experts.
The article aims to analyze the current status of civilian control over intelligence services. The years 1990-1991 marked the beginning of a comprehensive transformation of this area of state ...activity. The article analyses the following issues: how hev the critical problems of civilian control over intelligence services been resolved across the three decades of their operation and to what extent the political system has been transformed in this area? The article consists of four main parts. The first discusses the concept of "special services" which signify specific institutional solutions in Poland. The following parts are organized according to the basic types of civilian control, i.e., executive control, parliamentary oversight, and independent oversight. The considerations focus on the institutional dimension of security. The article is analytical. It is prepared based on the available sources and literature.
Despite the so-called transition in Angola from a single-party Socialist regime to a multiparty liberal democracy in the 1990s, alongside several formal organizational, legal, and institutional ...changes, this article argues that the Angolan security/intelligence services have been able to maintain their primary purpose since their creation in 1975 up to the present day - to support and protect the hegemony of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party, its elites and, above all, its President. The article outlines the evolution of the Angolan security/intelligence services in terms of their long-term continuity, exposing how changes in Angola's political system in response to domestic and international challenges were circumvented by the security services without altering their main foundational objective, or making them more accountable to democratic civilian control.
Resumo Este artigo trata do Centro de Informações Exteriores (Ciex, 1966-1985) subordinado ao Ministério das Relações Exteriores durante os anos da Ditadura Militar de 1964, analisando os documentos ...produzidos por ele como integrante da comunidade de informações no que diz respeito à vigilância ao cinema brasileiro. Tratamos ainda da vigilância ao cineasta Glauber Rocha, como exemplo da produção de dados e do controle ideológico pela comunidade de informações durante seu autoexílio por seis anos pela Europa.
Resumen Este artículo aborda el Centro de Información Exterior (Ciex, 1966-1985), subordinado al Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores durante la Dictadura militar de 1964, mediante el análisis de los documentos producidos por el organismo como parte de la comunidad de inteligencia en relación con la vigilancia del cine brasileño. También se analiza la vigilancia al cineasta Glauber Rocha como ejemplo de producción de datos y control ideológico por parte de la comunidad de inteligencia durante su autoexilio de seis años en Europa.
Abstract This study addresses the Foreign Intelligence Center (Ciex, 1966-1985), subordinate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the 1964 military dictatorship, and analyze the documents it produced as part of the intelligence community to monitor Brazilian cinema. This research also addresses the surveillance of filmmaker Glauber Rocha as an example of data production and ideological control by the intelligence community during his six-year self-exile in Europe.
Abstract This article delves into the vicissitudes of democratic control of government intelligence activities in the United States between 1972 and 1980. The previous phase of the Cold War ...(1947-1971), characterized by the intense systemic polarization between the United States and the Soviet Union, coupled with the expansion of state capacity and internal social conflicts within the US, contributed to the establishment of complex national systems of intelligence organizations and activities in both countries. In the 1970s, the strategic stabilization of US-USSR relations (détente) depended, in part, on the technological advancements in intelligence gathering from communications, signals, and imagery via satellites. Police and military surveillance of internal dissidents and the growing political crisis towards the end of the Nixon administration created the conditions for an unprecedented and consistent attempt to exert democratic external control over intelligence operations by the Legislative and Judiciary branches. The resurgence of the Cold War from 1980 onwards and the election of Reagan marked the beginning of a partial reversal of the controls. In less than a decade, a highly institutionalized democracy such as the US made great efforts and experienced difficulties regulating and controlling intelligence activities.
Resumo Neste artigo, analisamos as vicissitudes do controle democrático das atividades governamentais de inteligência nos Estados Unidos entre 1972 e 1980. Durante a fase anterior da Guerra Fria (1947-1971), a alta polarização sistêmica entre os Estados Unidos e a União Soviética, juntamente com a expansão da capacidade estatal e dos conflitos sociais internos nos EUA, condicionaram diretamente a formação de um complexo sistema nacional de organizações e atividades de inteligência nos dois países. Nos anos 1970, a estabilização estratégica das relações entre os EUA e a URSS (détente) dependeu também do desenvolvimento tecnológico da coleta de inteligência de comunicações, sinais e imagens por meio de satélites. A vigilância policial e militar de dissidentes internos e a crise política crescente até o final do governo Nixon criaram as condições para uma tentativa inédita e consistente de exercício do controle externo democrático das atividades de inteligência por parte dos Poderes Legislativo e Judiciário. O recrudescimento da Guerra Fria a partir de 1980 e a eleição de Reagan marcam o início de uma reversão parcial nos controles. Em menos de uma década, uma democracia altamente institucionalizada como a norte-americana fez grandes esforços e teve muitas dificuldades para regular e controlar as atividades de inteligência.
Resumen: Este artículo analiza las tensiones a las que se enfrentó el Comité de Elegibilidad para los Refugiados (CEPARE) creado por el gobierno argentino para otorgar el refugio a los exiliados ...chilenos. Analiza el conflicto de instrumentar criterios "técnicos" frente al problema de la violencia política y los delitos cometidos por los solicitantes de refugio, y el papel de los servicios de inteligencia chilenos en Argentina. El artículo considera la inscripción del reconocimiento del refugio en el contexto político nacional y de sus relaciones con Chile.
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