Sunny Hundal has an article in this week's New Statesman on the double-edged nature of modern technology, which simultaneously allows governments and corporations to track us and collect and store great swathes of personal information, but also gives us the tools we need to organise and fight back. He has some generous things to say about the Convention on Modern Liberty which was an alarm call at the threats to freedom from new technology but also a celebration of its emancipating power.
Many ordinary people do not realise just how much information is being stored about them. The technological complexities have allowed the government in effect to say, "Trust us, we're here to protect you," without having the full fail-safe systems in place.
Furthermore, the "database state" has become a fully fledged "database economy". Corporations have huge financial stakes in perpetuating this state of affairs, whether through government contracts or gathering information themselves. The Tesco Clubcard and Google search history are essentially giant, lucrative data-mining operations.
But all is not lost. The huge success of the first ever Convention on Modern Liberty in February, initially promoted entirely through blogs and social networks, illustrates a growing unease among Britons at how their personal privacy is being treated. It also offers optimistic signs that the left hasn't entirely abandoned the civil liberties agenda for the Lib Dems or liberal Tories to claim ownership over.
Its co-organiser Anthony Barnett, who was also instrumental in launching Charter 88, says: "For the first time direct democracy and effective, time-efficient participation can be developed to replace the centralised control-and-command state of the 20th century.
New technology is thus creating a great battle between a modern liberty and a new servitude."
He admits it will be a close battle. However, the impact of footage of the police taken during the G20 protests is testament to technology's ability to empower ordinary people.
Growing numbers of people are using blogs to share information and collaborate in attempts to track government legislation and action.
