Surveillance is repackaged in the language of personal freedom to gain acceptance

Evidence

Surveillance is not obviously a benefit to citizens (except as a temporary means to counter serious threats), so it must be repackaged or disguised. Here is the source of data colonialism’s most interesting contradictions. It is eerie but not uncommon to find the language of personal freedom melded with the logic of surveillance, as in the motto of facial-recognition software manufacturer, Facefirst: “Creating a safer and more personalised planet through facial recognition technology.” Google, meanwhile, is marketing Nest Hello, a video doorbell that includes facial-recognition technology, and Amazon has its own facial-recognition service called simply Rekognition. In China, facial-recognition software is becoming the cool new way for customers to pay for fast food and a (less cool!) way for city authorities to monitor public spaces. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 80

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘language of personal freedom melded with surveillance’ directly parallels Zamyatin’s We (freedom vs happiness surveillance) and echoes the reader’s attention/surveillance school. — connects to: Perceived threat makes the public accept surveillance over privacy — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2332; Surveillance capitalism constitutes a coup against the people disguised as personalization — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1627; Fearful publics endorse broad surveillance since safety outweighs privacy (+6 more)
• SEED: This eeriness of freedom-language fused with surveillance could anchor an essay on how privacy-invading tech brands appropriate liberation rhetoric.

Broader Connections

• Perceived threat makes the public accept surveillance over privacy #expands (0.82) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2332
• Anxious citizens welcomed surveillance rather than having it imposed #corroborates (0.82)
• Fearful publics endorse broad surveillance since safety outweighs privacy #expands (0.80)
• Surveillance capitalism constitutes a coup against the people disguised as personalization #exemplifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1627