Who is responsible for our creeping surveillance age? Chances are, it's you | Tatum Hunter

"Governments and companies are the architects of surveillance culture, but civilians are increasingly keen to play a part. And it's not just our perceived political enemies we're willing to watch. It's our friends, neighbours, partners and children. As corporations and governments tunnel further into our digital lives—hoarding information about where we shop, who we know and what we believe—we've grown increasingly comfortable demanding the same access in our personal lives."

"These oversteps may seem like personal failures, but we can't divorce them from their societal context. When companies are collecting digital clues about your HIV status and sharing them with advertisers, it's tough to keep track of what's appropriate. Consumers have become desensitised to mass data collection. In a 2023 report from Pew Research, 73% of American adults said they feel they have little to no control over what companies do with the data collected about them."

Surveillance has evolved from a top-down institutional practice to a normalized civilian activity. A TikTok comedian's fake ICE tip line received calls including one from a teacher reporting a kindergartener, exemplifying how ordinary people now participate in monitoring others. This shift reflects broader desensitization to data collection. Corporations and governments collect extensive personal information about shopping habits, relationships, and beliefs, while individuals increasingly demand similar access to others' locations, messages, and movements. Behaviors once considered shocking—hacking partners' text messages, tracking coworkers' locations, recording strangers—now occur routinely. Research shows 73% of American adults feel powerless over corporate data use, rising to 79% regarding government data, explaining increased tolerance for invasive surveillance practices.

Read at www.theguardian.com