Surveillence leads people to refrain from speaking and acting freely⏳
Surveillance has a potentially enormous chilling effect on society. The philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s key observation in conceiving his panopticon was that people become conformist and compliant when they are being observed, thus the panopticon is an architecture of social control. Think of how you act when a police car is driving next to you, or how an entire country acts when state agents are listening to phone calls. When we are constantly under threat of judgement, criticism, and correction for our actions, we become paranoid that—either now or in the uncertain future—data will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has become focused on our once private and innocent acts. In response, we do nothing our of the ordinary. We lose our individuality and society stagnates. We don’t question or challenge power and become conformist, obedient, and submissive.
References
- Schneier, Bruce. (2015). Data and Goliath The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World CHapter 7. Political Liberty and Justice (Location 1533). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.