George Orwell really never could have imagined that people would flock to purchase or otherwise use the methods of their own surveillance. (smart phones, social media, smart cameras, modern cars, etc) I think it paints government surveillance policies in something of a different light. There is definitely a constituency which believes that the evil central government is pushing for surveillance in a purely unilateral way.
I'm not really pro-government, but modern surveillance capitalism really pushes against this view. Put to their own devices, the public will generally (and apparently) flock towards mass surveillance all on their own, and I think one possible implication is that the government surveillance policies are more popular then some folks in HN circles would suspect.
I already have problem with negligent people using products like Ring that is to surveil anyone around without control, with uncontrollable and unreliable level of standard handling collected data (no high hopes here). But when I find it very very hard and limited purchasing products that cannot spy on me - special mention here for smart phones and cars - that makes me mad to the next level. Even for the elevated level privacy concious folks the car and the smart phone bringing hostility for your private life is getting harder and harder to avoid. Not having the suitable time to do the tedious investigations and costly trials into the reliability of products with low surveillance risks, not to mention the constant need of keeping yourself up do date to everything involved in this regard! We need to live our life, cannot spend it on constant workarounds, hacks, and very reasonable paranoia. When logging into essential services are MANDATING the use of smart phones (i.e. MFA, but own apps sometimes, requiring specific vendors!!), not to mention the need of getting from A to B the way required (goods, children, time limits, navigation), but cannot procure a solution that will not expose you to adverse agents or even criminals (those getting in and out of systems nowadays like they live there) that makes me really really mad! This society is shit. I cannot do it, but feel the highly increasing need for becoming the real life Captain Fantastic [1].
I feel this entirely. The constant surveillance is almost unavoidable if one ever wants to participate in society. How can I always avoid using a cell phone when my source of income requires that I be accessible most of time. People will respond to get another job or buy this obscure product instead, but as you said, I can’t live my life if I’m constantly researching EVERYTHING that affects my life, and having to wade through so much bs to do so.
And don't forget the AI companies. People are happy to send their highly personal information (and company secrets) to them so that a chatbot can use it. Didn't OpenAI just announce a porn feature?
OpenAI is receiving far more data with a far greater privacy impact than social networks. And all this is happening at a time when the US is transitioning from a somewhat functioning democracy to an autocratic and fascist system.
>government surveillance policies are more popular then some folks in HN circles would suspect.
2 things.
1. Few people understand most surveillance legislation, including journalists.
2. Most governments use thought terminating cliches involving child safety to force compliance on the middle set of people who dont like surveillance and understand a minimum amount of what the legislation does.
These points leave anti surveillance campaigners fighting an uphill battle. Most people, when they have these laws clearly articulated and arent in danger of being called a pedo for opposing them, oppose them.
I think this is correct, but buying something like a Ring camera is 100% voluntary. And buying a smartphone _used_ to be 100% voluntary, and people couldn't get enough of them. People aren't ignorant about privacy, they don't even care about it. Try telling your friends you turn bluetooth off on your phone and don't have a data plan for it. They'll think you're very, very weird. They do not care about privacy whatsoever.
When that trade is voluntary, its not really that controversial.
People give facebook tons of data, they dont care because it keeps them in touch with friends. People get upset when the utility of facebook decreases due to enshittification, or if they provide that data to somewhere spooky that they werent aware they were consenting to.
I'm not really pro-government, but modern surveillance capitalism really pushes against this view. Put to their own devices, the public will generally (and apparently) flock towards mass surveillance all on their own, and I think one possible implication is that the government surveillance policies are more popular then some folks in HN circles would suspect.