t is no secret, especially since 2020, that we live in a society where surveillance of various kinds and at different levels – optical, audial, text-oriented, administrative – has increased almost unbearably. As long ago as 2011 Sherry Turkle sounded the alarm on the growing acceptance of surveillance (by the US government, among other agencies) and the concomitant loss of privacy by most people. In Alone Together (2011: p. 262) she raised this issue by observing:

Privacy has a politics. For many, the idea ‘we’re all being observed all the time anyway, so who needs privacy?’ has become a commonplace. But this state of mind has a cost. At a Webby Awards ceremony, an event to recognize the best and most influential websites, I was reminded of just how costly it is.

She proceeded to describe how, when the issue of ‘illegal wiretapping’ by government cropped up, the general response by the ‘Weberati’ was that, if one had ‘nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear,’ in this way revealing their apathy about the incremental loss of privacy. On this occasion, a ‘Web luminary’ confided to her that someone might always be observing your activity on the internet, but that it really did not matter if this were the case: ‘As long as you are not doing anything wrong, you are safe.’

[Panopticism is “people can be controlled when they believe themselves to be under constant surveillance even if no one is watching.” Certainly sounds familiar. ~ Beege]