Surveillance refers to the supervision of the activities of subject populations in the political sphere—although its importance as a basis of administrative power is by no means confined to that sphere. Supervision may be direct (as in many of the instances discussed by Foucault, such as prisons, schools, or open workplaces), but more characteristically it is indirect and based upon the control of information.

DEFINE: Establishes surveillance as political supervision of subject populations, clarifying that its administrative use reaches beyond the political sphere and typically operates indirectly through information control.

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Moderni…, loc. 154