My point of view is very simple: I believe in freedom of speech. If I feel like someone is watching and trying to understand every word I write, I cannot write freely for fear of misinterpretation or misunderstanding. Hyperbole like "I feel like killing my boss" is the first to go. The person I am speaking to knows what I mean by my statements and I feel confident that he does. Having someone listen in on my conversations would take away that feeling of freedom. The law even has similar provisions: attorney-client privilege is only applicable if the two people have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
I wrote out a big old reply to this article, and canned it. I was worried about a load of down votes. I didn't want to be judged badly by a decent community. I was worried my opinion would be a downer or some how anti-American / Capitalist / Western. So I self censored. And that's just a hacker's news aggregation site.
Dunno what point Im trying to make, but were we ever really free to make out true opinion's public? Who do we fear more; government or our peers?
This is exactly the point that I was trying to make: when we write here, its in public. We have the expectation to be judged for what we say. Could you imagine if you had that feeling writing to your friends in private?
I think there are some studies on the effect of surveillance on human behavior. I've searched on google scholar, there are quite a few articles.
Here's an excerpt from one article, to give you a feel of such research: "in relation to the telephone, one feels ‘a subject’ and thus able to control the situation whereas, in relation to the camera, one is always ‘an object’. The object of a camera is in the situation of being a potential victim, without the opportunity to influence his or her own destiny. The object is forced to trust in someone else. This is why surveillance raises contradictions: to be placed in the position of a victim does not increase the feeling of being ‘in control’, but rather the feeling of being ‘under control’. However, while feelings of being under control may not be pleasant, they might still ensure one’s feelings of safety.", from ‘The gaze without eyes’: video-surveillance and the changing nature of urban space, Hille Koskela, 2000. http://old.geog.psu.edu/courses/geog497b/Readings/Koskela.pd...
I think there might be some empirical research as well.
