The rise of the bio-surveillance state
Jeremy Cliffe notes:
https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2020/03/rise-bio-surveillance-state
Jeremy Cliffe notes:
https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2020/03/rise-bio-surveillance-state
“I have argued before for a “data social democracy” in
which digital information accrues not to all-powerful governments, nor to
overmighty private firms, but to ordinary people under a pluralist system of
redistribution. Legislatures must impose sunset clauses on emergency powers.
Independent institutions need to monitor concentrations of data power. The
default has to be that citizens own their data and decide who else does.
Applying these principles over the turbulent coming period and the century
beyond will not be easy. But it is the only way”.
What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital
surveillance?
“[Jeremy] Bentham was regarded as the founder of
utilitarianism and a leading advocate of the separation of church and state,
freedom of expression and individual legal rights…
As a work of architecture, the panopticon allows a
watchman to observe occupants without the occupants knowing whether or not they
are being watched. As a metaphor, the panopticon was commandeered in the latter
half of the 20th century as a way to trace the surveillance tendencies of
disciplinarian societies”.