Re:Made in China, Exported to the World: The Surveillance State
by roenxi on Wednesday April 24, 2019 @08:16AM
(#19737602)
> Blanketing a city with CCTV seems to be a pragmatic trade-off for personal safety.
There isn't a theoretical problem with having a democratic surveillance state. Indeed, the major democracies basically are surveillance states. My understanding is that Britain has invested heavily with CCTV, for example.
Surveillance is a threat to personal liberty, because it makes it easier for a centralised government to control what people do and do not. Liberty has historically been a core western value, but liberty and democracy are very separate things.
There isn't a theoretical problem with having a democratic surveillance state. Indeed, the major democracies basically are surveillance states. My understanding is that Britain has invested heavily with CCTV, for example.
Surveillance is a threat to personal liberty, because it makes it easier for a centralised government to control what people do and do not. Liberty has historically been a core western value, but liberty and democracy are very separate things.