Privacy is Dead

It is unrealistic to maintain life in the absence of surveillance. Every action is monetized and captured. The reason behind the demise of privacy is advanced technology. It all happens to a large extent voluntarily due to carrying smart gadgets in the quest for likes and attention. CCTV cameras are located everywhere, but facial recognition technology is linked with social media platforms. Ongoing surveillance is the cost in the name of public safety. However, surveillance capitalism refers to understanding the changing nature of how societies operate, the allocation of power, and the economic lucidity of our time. It is not merely a slogan or a craze in academia. Primarily, it is the entire process of mining personal information relevant to human experience, processing that information into envisioned goods, and ultimately making money off of those conjectures in markets that contract with human behavior. Initially, technology giants like Google and Facebook invented this method, after which big tech companies adopted this idea, and it is now the most in-demand strategy in the digital era. It is not an exaggeration to say that surveillance capitalism has wholly altered the definition of privacy, undermining it to the point where countless people are uninformed of what has been lost. This system is driven by the corrosion of privacy; it is not a coincidence. Surveillance capitalism would perish without the current collection of personal data. Nevertheless, the loss of privacy is more common than before, forming a vicious cycle, so escape is challenging. The idea of surveillance capitalism was realized in the year 2000 by Google, Facebook, Microsoft & Amazon, which adopted the same later. As no one can deny the fact that individual data is used to forecast human behavior, to intensify search results, to enhance advertising, and to improve the method of communication, in the slogan of connecting people and covertly stealing user personal info. This process was significantly accelerated by the smartphone, which transmuted each person into a walking sensor that uninterruptedly transmits location data and even biometric information. Think of any place, and you will find sensors as surveillance has prolonged into vehicles, offices, home and common places of sitting. In recent times, privacy has been harshly undermined, and the majority population is unaware and pays no heed to their personal data while accessing numerous digital platforms. The safety layer between independence and personal dignity is eroded by surveillance capitalism. It is unclear to what extent personal information is assembled, exploited, and accessed. The important concern is that by clicking “I agree” to various agreements while accessing several apps, websites, and VPN, people are not liable for any struggle regarding online profile user personal information, and it is a meaningless routine of a large number of the population while neglecting individual consent.Consequently, mega companies can transform choices, alter behavior, stress, or neglect attention towards certain News or new ideas. This fact should be accepted by and large, where on one side, privacy is degraded and manipulated. Freedom is being conditional and diminishing in various ways, as the ability to think, speak, and act is molded in the absence of external scrutiny. Firms make profits from the supply of raw materials being used for surveillance capitalism. As this topic is ignored by a large audience, but importantly, the digital footprints of children are monitored, and it has a profound influence on their upbringing, their growth, education, hobbies, job choices, reply to what’s happening around them, and covertly they are under surveillance.Hence, on a large scale, surveillance capitalism is a threat to democracy. As election scandals and the spread of misinformation are reported worldwide, algorithmic decision-making is becoming increasingly challenging and lacks transparency. Data-driven systems often replicate and exacerbate preexisting biases, resulting in unfair outcomes in lending, law enforcement, diplomacy, and hiring. The basic fact the public often ignores is that a small number of digital firms dominate and regulate earnings from surveillance capitalism, further destabilizing societies and leading to economic disparity. Nonetheless, the location of the digital platform is not always the same as the location where the service is provided, and regulations are difficult to evade because of differences in jurisdiction between the platform’s location and its headquarters. Journalists, activists, and researchers widely oppose the mainstream of surveillance capitalism due to its covert and encrypted nature. Nevertheless, resistance is daunting given the system’s sheer size. This issue isn’t limited to privacy; it also affects human rights, dignity, and autonomy. Is it tolerable for businesses to generate money from people’s personal information? Is it OK to treat personal information as a traded asset? It is too late to be cautious because a great deal of data is already collected by big firms. What comes to our idea might be the last shelter of privacy. Mujeeb ur Rehman is an M.Phil scholar and can be reached via mujeeb33493@gmail.com