Profiling in the age of total information awareness

Abstract

In recent years, a secretive domestic surveillance apparatus has been created in the US in the name of counter-terrorism. Based on the notion of ‘predictive policing’, it aims to gather such detailed information about individuals — ‘total information awareness’ — that it is able to anticipate crimes before they are committed. Linked to the return of racial profiling in the name of the ‘war on terror’ and implemented by local Joint-Terrorism Task Forces, operating effectively with federal powers and little accountability, this new surveillance apparatus is especially focused on Muslims, immigrants and prisoners.