Eyes watching your privacy. Shutterstock/Ziben. All rights reserved.The unexpected findings from the openDemocracy/St Andrews research that British political activists from a diverse range of campaigns, while recognising the import of Snowden’s revelations, have not found a coherent response, existentially, practically or technologically to the threat of mass surveillance are both fascinating and depressing.
This, I suspect, confirms philosopher Zygmunt Bauman and friends’ proposition that the implications of the Snowden affair are so major that few have had the opportunity to fully evaluate their potential impact on the political, cultural and public sphere.[1]
Ramsay, Ramsay and Marsden’s research touches on the ‘chilling effect’ of the burgeoning surveillance state on the motivation to express dissent or make those in power accountable. Their research suggests only a minority of activists have felt the chilling effect. The majority took the view that Snowden tended to confirm their suspicions. This resonates with my own research with journalists, No More Sources?, published last week. Those who are used to the idea of being under surveillance are less likely to reduce their activity. What it worrying is that there is growing evidence that the likelihood of surveillance is chilling those who are not used to the idea of daily Panoptic surveillance, and reducing their willingness to take civic action.
