sousveillance

Coined by Canadian wearable computing researcher and professor Steve Mann, from surveillance and French sous (“under”) (as opposed to sur (“over”) as in surveillance).

• IPA^(key): /suːˈveɪləns/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

sousveillance (uncountable)

1. The recording of an activity from the perspective of participant in the activity.
   • 2022 March 27, Katherine Alejandra Cross, “Why Is the Internet So Exhausting? Blame Your Crowdsourced Bosses”, in WIRED‎^[1], archived from the original on 27 March 2022:

     No, you’re not always “the product” on social media; sometimes you’re the raw material. Or the employee. Welcome to “sousveillance capitalism.” […] But you see the flow of capital here: viral sousveillance proliferating in an attention economy that benefits large tech firms, further exploited by traditional advertisers as “relatable” content.

2. Countersurveillance, inverse surveillance.
   • 2002 September, Steve Mann, Jason Nolan, Barry Wellman, “Sousveillance: Inventing and Using Wearable Computing Devices for Data Collection in Surveillance Environments.”, in Surveillance & Society, volume 1, number 3, →DOI, →ISSN, Anstract, pages 331–355:

     This paper describes using wearable computing devices to perform "sousveillance" (inverse surveillance) as a counter to organizational surveillance.

   • 2015 May, Paul Reilly, “Every little helps? YouTube, sousveillance and the ‘anti-Tesco’ riot in Stokes Croft”, in New Media & Society, volume 17, number 5, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 755–771:

     This study uses a critical thematic analysis to explore the comments left by those who viewed these acts of ‘inverse surveillance’, or sousveillance. Results indicate that YouTube provided a space in which alternative views on the Stokes Croft riot were seen and heard but the views of many commentators still appeared to be influenced by the news media.

   • 2018 August 21, Bruce Sterling, quoting Zoltan Istvan, “The Transhumanist Bill of Rights version 2.0”, in WIRED‎^[2], →ISSN, archived from the original on 7 February 2019:

     Article XIV. Sousveillance laws should be enacted to ensure that all members of peaceful communities feel safe, to achieve governmental transparency, and to provide counter-balances to any surveillance state.

3. Veillance by the masses, of the dominant entities.

• surveillance
• McVeillance
• veillance

From English sousveillance, coined by Steve Mann, from a blend of sous +‎ surveillance.

• IPA^(key): /su.vɛ.jɑ̃s/ ~ /su.ve.jɑ̃s/

sousveillance f (plural sousveillances)

1. sousveillance