CANCELLED: Sociology of Surveillance: Privacy, Surveillance & Security — “If You Have Nothing to Hide, You Have Nothing to Fear” — Or Not? with Professor Kat Jungnickel from Goldsmiths, University of London

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are no longer able to deliver this session. We apologise for any inconvenience and disappointment.

In this Sociology of Surveillance session, Professor Kat Jungnickel, from the School of Global Change at Goldsmiths, University of London, will run an interactive talk for students on Privacy, Surveillance & Security: “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” — or not?

In this interactive session we’ll explore how governments and companies have rapidly expanded systems that surveil and track what people have done and predict what they might do next: from more CCTV cameras, biometric IDs like fingerprints and face scans, stricter border checks, to ubiquitous algorithms that automatically profile and categorise people. These tools don’t exist on their own—they’re reinforced by laws, experts, high-profile products and our own everyday practices. Travel, shopping, school, work, and leisure activities all feed data into huge socio‑technical systems. At the same time, protest movements and civil‑liberties groups query the nature and volume of data being collected and how it is stored and used.

In this session we’ll discuss: What everyday actions keep these systems running and expanding? What impacts do they have? How do they shape our behaviour? Why does it matter? Do we need stronger protections, or more creative ways to rethink privacy, surveillance and security altogether?

Lecturer Profile: Professor Kat Jungnickel

Our events are designed so that a group of students can take part from a classroom or students and teachers can take part as individuals, either from school or from home. There is no charge to take part.

As a live, participative event, this session will not be recorded but slides and other resources will be shared after the event, where available.

Suitable for: Aged 16+ pre-university students studying, or with a possible interest in studying, Sociology, Criminology and related disciplines. Student groups as well as students and teachers joining individually are very welcome.

Preparation/Pre-Reading: Students may wish to consider the topic in advance and questions they have. Students can also think about questions about studying at university level.

The IT Setup: The event will be run on Zoom and participants will be able to join using laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. If you are joining as a school group, we recommend connecting with one device and projecting on to a whiteboard. You will be able to interact with the speaker via typed comments and questions and/or via a microphone. Full details will be sent to those who have registered (see below) prior to the event.