What is the bigger evil from a privacy perspective - Internet surveillance under democratic control or corporate data mining of big data? You as a person do not want to live in a Panopticon - a totally transparent prison house where an authority can see everything you think or do, so there are limitations for how much surveillance that is desirable to have in a democratic country. However some surveillance may be needed to make people with bad intents restrain themselves due to the risk of being detected. On the other hand - corporate data mining is utilised by big companies - social media and search engines to gain knowledge about more or less everything about you, and they use this private information for creating a huge business based on targeted marketing - which may seem fine until you get targeted advertisements after having searched for information you think is private or sensitive. This problem grows even bigger with the advent of smart homes and an Internet of Things, where corporate services and data mining may invade your personal home.
What is the bigger evil of democratically controlled surveillance and corporate data mining, and how should we govern these?
Hi Nils
That is a good philosophical question you have posed. For me, the answer can be surveillance, corporate data mining, both, or neither depending on your personal perspective. If you are up to no good, then surveillance would certainly pose a greater threat to you. If you are an extremely private person, then corporate data mining could present the greater threat, although if you were concerned about personal freedom and privacy, then both would be a concern. If, on the other hand, you were to create a ghost persona for all your web activity, especially if you were not to use social media, then you probably wouldn't care about either.
As a general rule, state surveillance will be highly intrusive, but will generally remain private, until you do something wrong, and the authorities bring you to account for your actions. Corporate data mining will likely be more and more intrusive, and will end up being less private, as the corporate giants maximise revenue generation by bombarding you with targeted advertising, and when they have squeezed what they can out of you, will then sell your details on to other, perhaps less scrupulous companies. There are many, especially younger users of social media today who will deeply regret sharing details of their current drunken escapades some time in the future when prospective employers check their past social media profile, and reject them for a job as being too socially irresponsible.
Personally, I dislike both, but there is clearly no getting away from the fact that both are not going away any time soon.
Regards
Bob
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