In What We Believe
The 21st century has been profoundly shaped by the invisible infrastructure of the surveillance economy, which captures every last crumb of data left behind by our daily lives. These data points are collected and pieced together to create individual profiles of us. Profiles that are then leased to advertisers hungry for our attention, shared with governments for investigative purposes, and sold to shady data brokers.
Digital products and services have stopped working for us. Instead, we’re unknowingly working for them. We’re ranked, rated, profiled—programmed to act in ways we otherwise wouldn’t.
Forget "having nothing to hide." The internet activity of every person has become a hot commodity. Our data is being churned into an industry that’s worth more than oil, and it’s being used against us. To capture our attention, our money, and our votes. To predict what we’ll do next and influence our behavior.
If information is power and we’ve lost control of our information, what are we left with?
The internet once seemed like an endless horizon of possibility—a place for connection, serendipity, and experimentation. A space not beholden to profit. Today’s internet looks very different, having been captured by the market forces of the surveillance economy, whose fuel is every detail of our personal lives. Although companies claim data collection is meant to improve their services, we shrug it off as a compromise for convenience and hope the law will address it.
Yet governments worldwide have been slow to regulate. Many have implemented their own mass surveillance programs in the name of national security, listening in on communications, coercing companies to open their data troves, automating policing and court processes, implementing social credit systems, and rolling out facial recognition programs. In doing so, they have turned law-abiding citizens into suspects without cause.
The loss of control over our data has been a slippery slope of decline. Much of it has happened without our knowledge or consent, but it’s now our problem, both individually and collectively.
What we’re losing is nothing less than our individual autonomy. Open, democratic societies require vigorous debate and the free exchange of ideas. Constant monitoring robs us of the ability to selectively reveal ourselves to the world. It pushes us toward conformism instead of respecting individuality and difference. Knowing that our words and actions are being permanently recorded makes us less likely to think critically, speak up for what we believe in, experiment with new ideas, and flourish as human beings.
Maybe we haven’t yet been personally targeted, hacked, or discriminated against, but in this volatile climate, where everything can change with a click of a refresh button, the rights we have today aren’t a given. The more we take them for granted, the more it harms the billions of people around the world who are already vulnerable: minorities and marginalized communities, journalists, activists, lawyers, dissenters, citizens of authoritarian regimes, democracy advocates.
We can’t opt out of the global surveillance society we’ve become subject to, but it’s not going to fix itself either.
What we can do is claim our agency. We can equip ourselves with digital tools that allow us to regain a degree of control. We can share strategies, spread the word, and take a stand. We can let governments and tech companies know that privacy is not an inevitable sacrifice for progress, not a trade-off for national security, not a last-century value, and certainly not dead.
Around the world, a growing movement of individuals and organizations is coming together to counter the status quo. They are asserting their rights and speaking up for those who can’t. They are resisting the relentless data economy, holding accountable those who abuse their power, and continuing to fight for a human-centered internet, for the flourishing of democracy, and for a future free from surveillance.
Kame is part of this movement. Our smartphone, designed with built-in Identity VPN, empowers you to reclaim your privacy and take control of your data. It’s time to equip yourself with the tools to protect your online identity, fight back against surveillance, and join the growing movement for a free, open internet.