  It is also important to consider whether a meaningful distinction can be drawn between monitoring and surveillance in this context. Noting that the two terms are often used interchangeably, Nissenbaum (2010, 22) differentiates between them in the following way. Whereas surveillance is a “form of monitoring ‘from above’ by political regimes and those in authority,” monitoring is used in broader social and “socio-technical” contexts. In Nissenbaum’s scheme, both monitoring and surveillance are examples of what she calls “socio-technical contexts,” but they are usually put to different uses. For example, Nissenbaum points out that monitoring can be done by systems “whose explicit purpose is to monitor” (e.g., CCTVs). But she also notes that information itself can constitute a “modality of monitoring.” For example, she points out that Clarke’s notion of “dataveillance” includes monitoring practices that involve both interactions and transactions. However, we can generally regard the kinds of practices carried out by information merchants in the consumer sphere as instances of monitoring (rather than surveillance) in Nissenbaum’s sense of that term.