Beyond sunglasses and spray paint: A taxonomy of surveillance countermeasures

The rapid decline in size and cost of networked sensors combined with increased incentives for use including monitoring physical fitness, improving public safety, increasing security, and adding convenience is causing the physical and online worlds to become heavily instrumented. Some welcome such developments, but others seek to retain privacy, often by focusing on countering the sensors themselves. Scholars have begun to consider surveillance countermeasures as a stand-alone area of research. However, a scholarly taxonomy useful for critical analysis and systematic countermeasure development is lacking. In this paper we provide such a taxonomy illustrated with example countermeasures that have been successfully employed.