Movements of Resistance to Digital Surveillance

Two years after the beginning of the pandemic and the implementation of particularly severe measures restricting liberty, Futuribles launched a series around the issue of freedom versus the call for the protection and surveillance of the population. Begun in the previous issue (no. 449), this series continues in this September-October number, with this article by Marie Ségur on movements of resistance to digital surveillance. The fact is that very rapid developments in IT over recent decades, which have given us new functionalities and provided users with many opportunities, have also brought with them a dissemination of large quantities of data and information that are poorly secured or not secured at all and may be captured and exploited by all kinds of—private and public—actors. Whether consciously or not, the users of these technologies give out a large quantity of personal data that enables third parties to know more about them, canvass them, spy on them etc. In response, since the earliest days of computers and the Internet, movements have arisen to protest against the risks this could produce in terms of privacy and the potential forms of control inherent in these technologies. Marie Ségur shows how these resistance movements have emerged; she presents the main collectives involved in them, their principles and modes of action. She also describes recent developments and the restrictions and perspectives that might be coming down the line, particularly in terms of regulation or legal action.