Smile, You’re on Camera
Imagine this. One day, a magical purple genie suddenly appears in front of you and asks a single question: would you sacrifice privacy in exchange for a safer society? If it has been undeniably proven that the government installing cameras in your neighborhood will drastically reduce violent crimes and other unacceptable behaviours, would you allow your personal privacy to be taken away?
Many of us would say yes.
While the majority of people understand that privacy is important, it is often difficult to articulate what exactly is valuable about privacy. We know that the police shouldn’t be able to search us without suspicion or reason, but it is hard to explain why. If a serial killer is on the loose and narrowing down potential suspects would cost too much time, what exactly is so unjustified about the police searching your house just in case? After all, why should it bother you if you’ve got nothing to hide? It’s not like the government would mock you for your home decor or a lack thereof.
Due to this mindset, we often minimize the importance of privacy when making decisions. Most people automatically click ‘Accept all Cookies’ without much thought and continuously use social media platforms such as Facebook despite their policy of selling our data to third parties. When it comes down to it, most of us prioritizes convenience and safety above privacy. In fact, we only worry about privacy because of its practical implications—politicians using personal information to sway elections or oppressive regimes using it to track down activists. However, privacy, similar to human rights, is important regardless of practical impacts because it is fundamentally linked with our bodily autonomy and freedom.
A world without privacy is a world without choice and free will. As social creatures, we naturally care about how we are perceived by another person, even if they’re a stranger who will never vocalize their judgement. Consequently, when we are being observed, we worry about our reputation and change our actions drastically. Named the Hawthorne Effect, the shift in behaviour as a result of surveillance is a verifiable phenomenon. In the 1930s, the Hawthorne studies discovered that people were much more motivated to work when their boss was watching (Kenton, 2020). Since then, a group of scientists at Newcastle University also noticed that students littered considerably less when a poster of a human eye was hung up on the walls (Linden, 2011). This experiment reveals that improvement in behaviour occurred whenever people thought they were being observed, regardless of actuality. Even when students knew they were not being observed, the feeling of being watched alone was enough. The improvement in behaviour implies that people are more likely to tailor their behaviour to match societal norms and expectations when surveilled.
When our privacy is infringed upon, we lose the ability to separate our private lives from our public ones. Personal conversations we have with our friends over social media may be monitored and shared with strangers. Google searches that reflect our private thoughts and curiosities are stored and sold to advertisers. If the poster of an eye is enough to trigger the Hawthorne effect, then tech giants and government surveillance will definitely influence the way we behave, even subconsciously.
Some may argue that this is a good thing as it improves our behaviour. In a completely surveilled world, no one would stick gum underneath chairs or catcall random strangers. However, the ability to make decisions—even bad ones—is vital to our development of distinct identities. Trial and error plays a crucial role in not only the way we learn but also the way we construct our own identity. People must be able to try different things before committing to a certain option. For instance, we decide which career we want to pursue after taking a diverse range of classes; we determine our fashion style and hobbies through exploring different options. Without privacy, our ability to freely try different things becomes obsolete. The possibility of being observed traps people into following social norms and acting in alignment with their reputation. Someone growing up in a politically conservative community will never be able to attend a drag show to explore their sexuality or gender expression. Someone from a very liberal group may hesitate to visit a church. Instead of developing our own identities based on who we are, our personality and hobbies are chained by what society expects of us. A surveilled society may be safer and more secure, but we risk our individuality.
In the unlikely event that a genie appears in your room and asks you whether privacy should be sacrificed for societal welfare, the answer isn’t always no. However, you should remember the inherent and fundamental importance of privacy. It isn’t about keeping dirty secrets; it's about being able to act without being watched. Without privacy, we lose control over the most central parts of ourselves.
Citations:
Kenton, W. (2020, November 23). Hawthorne Effect. Investopedia. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hawthorne-effect.asp
Linden, S. (2011, May 3). How the Illusion of Being Observed Can Make You a Better Person. Scientific American. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-illusion-of-being-observed-can-make-you-better-person/