| > […] But collection of personal data is a bad thing whether it has consequences or not. Just knowing it's being collected changes one's behaviour and makes one feel unsafe. This is how a panopticon prison works.
For those who are unfamiliar with Panopticon prisons: > The panopticon is a type of institutional building and a system of control designed by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be observed by a single security guard, without the inmates being able to tell whether they are being watched. > … > Although it is physically impossible for the single guard to observe all the inmates' cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means that they are motivated to act as though they are being watched at all times. Thus, the inmates are effectively compelled to regulate their own behaviour. https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Panopticon One could easily draw a parallel here.
An interesting paragraph here describes the design of the incentive structure within the prison’s management: > [The prison’s designer] thought that the chief mechanism that would bring the manager of the panopticon prison in line with the duty to be humane would be publicity. Bentham tried to put his duty and interest junction principle into practice by encouraging a public debate on prisons. Bentham's inspection principle applied not only to the inmates of the panopticon prison, but also the manager. The unaccountable [prison officer] was to be observed by the general public and public officials. The apparently constant surveillance of the prison inmates by the panopticon manager and the occasional observation of the manager by the general public was to solve the age old philosophic question: "Who guards the guards?"[6] The age old answers to this philosophical question propose that a guardian for the guard to be an absurd idea, or one that plays out only with a plurality of guardians, who guard others against the deception of other guardians’ “noble lies”. > A noble lie is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly propagated by an elite to maintain social harmony or to advance an agenda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie |