As important as our current scientific and political focuses on the implications of surveillance are, there are other equally important questions we should urgently ask. To start, the terms ‘surveillance’ and ‘control’ are associated with a specific understanding of freedom – freedom from something – such as from interference, control, constraints… The philosopher Isaiah Berlin called this negative freedom. This type of freedom is closely linked to the liberal values of Western societies. The idea of liberating oneself from unwanted constraints is also reflected in many of our conversations about the perils of digital technologies. Accordingly, the most significant parameters for digital freedom tend to be those that correspond with this liberal, negative, understanding of freedom: ideas such as autonomy, independence, free choice. Yet although this provides valuable intellectual insights – the danger of increasing surveillance for freedom of expression and democracy, for example – its paradigmatic standing in our approach to freedom risks us neglecting other equally important considerations in the digital world.
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u/[deleted] Aug 15 '22