Digital transformation affects the state, businesses, and any person. Public administration and people’s communication become partially digital. This technology documents and records everything and cannot provide complete privacy for an individual, which gives governments a loophole to monitor, manipulate, and influence their citizens. They create special services, provide powers and resources to existing ones and cooperate with commercial companies. There is always a growing danger for the public that the intention of the observation will turn into a totalitarian action. However, some oversight of the digital space by the state is needed to prevent illegal activities and terrorist attacks. There is an ethical dilemma with governments and modern technology where the public has to decide if they want privacy or safety.
All gadgets that surround people and make their lives easier have various recording mechanisms, surveillance, and eavesdropping tools. Microphones, Face ID, personal profiles, and browser history are only a few methods of possible private data collection. The government having control over technology has a risk of starting to manipulate the population. Eventually, people will be unconsciously affected by the technologies in ways desired by the authorities. Such manipulation, even being visibly not harmful and minimal, contains the risk of evolving into deprivation of people’s freedom. Without freedom, human rights are trampled, and tyranny comes (McFaul, 2021). It is a historical axiom that the presence of greater control of the state in any social sphere leads to its dictatorial behavior.
The oppositional opinion includes the idea that the state controlling with soft power can be helpful. By seeing, hearing, and watching everything, authorities can counteract crime more effectively, uncover and destroy terrorists, and prevent disasters. Information control by the state can make the life of law-abiding citizens safer (Bousquet, 2018). However, almost all governments have a history of inciting artificial aggression (Greenspan, 2022). Giving an unethical institution control over something will only make it more corrupt.
The ethical topic being explored is giving control over information technology to the state for the public good. The dilemma is whether people should allow the state to use digital devices to keep them safe in exchange for privacy. The conclusion is that, even from the most pragmatic perspective, the trade-off would be too unequal for society, as they would ultimately have to give up privacy and freedom.
References
Bousquet, C. R. (2018). Why police should monitor social media to prevent crime. Wired. Web.
Greenspan, J. (2022). How the Gulf of Tonkin incident embroiled the US in the Vietnam War. History. Web.
McFaul, M. (2021). Russia’s road to autocracy. Journal of Democracy, 32(4), 11–26. Web.