Snowden’s exposure of covert surveillance has been lauded as a timely warning of how our private lives are cravenly monitored by the state, sanctioned by the PATRIOT Act in the US and RIPA – and now DRIP – this side of the pond. This discussion filmed at the Battle of Ideas, questions the surveillance panic and considers the wider picture. Today, we regularly thrust our private lives in to the spotlight, whether that’s the narcissistic sharing of gynaecological details on Facebook or offline public crusades to expose dark goings on behind closed doors. The problem it seems is not so straightforward.
